• Facility Master Plan Section I - Executive Summary, opens a new window
  • Facility Master Plan Overview, opens a new window
• Facility Master Plan Section II - Branch and Main Library Recommendation Summaries, opens a new window
  • Central Planning Zone, opens a new window - Avondale, Clifton, Corryville, Main, Northside, Norwood, St. Bernard, Walnut Hills, West End
  • Central North Planning Zone, opens a new window - College Hill, Elmwood Place, Forest Park, Greenhills, Groesbeck, Mt. Healthy, North Central, Wyoming
  • North East Planning Zone, opens a new window - Blue Ash, Bond Hill, Deer Park, Loveland, Madeira, Pleasant Ridge, Reading, Sharonville, Symmes Township
  • South East Planning Zone, opens a new window - Anderson, Hyde Park, Madisonville, Mariemont, Mt. Washington, Oakley
  • West Planning Zone, opens a new window - Cheviot, Covedale, Delhi Township, Green Township, Harrison, Miami Township, Monfort Heights, Price Hill, Westwood
• Facility Master Plan Section III - Implementation Strategy, opens a new window

Building Our Library's Future, 2019-2028

The Library is committed to the community’s well-being and to contributing to the effort to build a bright future for everyone living in Cincinnati and Hamilton County. As a part of this commitment, the Library will undergo a decade-long process to upgrade its facilities. Thanks to the residents of Hamilton County, the Library will receive approximately $19 million in additional funding for the next ten years beginning in April 2019, for a total of $190 million. This is our first budget increase in nearly 20 years. Given that the average length of time since a branch has been renovated is 40+ years, the bulk of this funding will go toward system-wide improvements.

In late 2018, the Library hired the experts at Group 4 Architecture, Research + Planning to help create a Facilities Master Plan, which will be a road map the Library can follow when re-envisioning how best to serve the county through its 41 locations. The Library’s Board of Trustees has endorsed the following principles to guide the process:

• Maximize access
• Transparency
• Customer focus
• Operational sustainability
• Industry-leading excellence
• Diversity and inclusion

A Community-Driven Process

System-wide facilities work has not been undertaken in generations. To ensure that taxpayer funds are used ethically, efficiently and effectively, the Library worked with experts to create a Facility Master Plan. The development of the Plan took place throughout 2019, and the Library worked with Group 4 and local company Design Impact, opens a new window to hold hundreds of community engagement sessions where we spoke with over 3,000 community members as well as sessions with a Community Advisory Council made up of local Hamilton County leaders to listen and learn from the community about what their biggest needs are and how the Library, with its 41 locations, can be re-envisioned to serve not just today’s generation but also generations to come. This includes ensuring that the Library has a viable funding plan in place to keep the improved facilities safe and up-to-date in the years to come.

Good Stewardship: A Facilities Master Plan

The Library is committed to engaging the community, staff, businesses, and other stakeholders throughout the process and in meaningful ways. Community dialog and input will help the Library develop and implement our most ambitious facility plan in our 160 year-history. Community forums and other events will take place throughout the life of the project for each branch to ensure that the facility improvements meet the needs of the community today and into the future. The plan will be carried out between 2019 – 2028 as levy funds are made available on a yearly basis, and the implementation of the plan is being called Building the Next Generation Library.