About the Berea Branch

Renovated in 2000 to provide more pleasant surroundings for its customers, the Berea Branch contains a wide range of materials – from best sellers to classics to compact discs, videos and DVDs, books-on-tape, CD-ROMS, and an excellent selection of popular periodicals. The branch also has two meeting rooms available for use by non-profit groups and computer terminals that provide access to the Internet as well as to many electronic databases. There is also a room for quiet study. Programs are offered for all age groups.

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The branch is located in the heart of downtown Berea, right next to City Hall and the Police Station.

The Berea Branch Library became the third branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library when it was opened in 1924 on the second floor of Berea City Hall. There were over 3,600 books in a 20' x 50' room. In 1939, the library was moved to a new location across from City Hall and, at that time, had over 8,000 volumes in the collection.

With the growth of Berea's population in the 1940s and 1950s, a new, larger library became desirable. In 1957, a new building was constructed on Tract Street adjoining the new City Hall. In 1965, an addition was added to the east side of the building and the branch now totaled 10,000 square feet, including the basement. Urban renewal came to Berea in the 1970s and the library's address was changed to 7 Berea Commons as Tract Street no longer existed.

In 1986, a bond issue was passed by the residents of Berea to fund extensive remodeling and an addition to the building. The dedication of the expanded library was held on October 29, 1989. In 2000, the library underwent a renovation wherein some collections were rearranged for easier access by the library customers and changes were made to make the library a more comfortable, pleasant place for those customers.

In 2009 the branch became the first in Cuyahoga County Public Library  to feature "Neighborhoods." The collection was rearranged to allow easier browsing for customers with more display areas and the collection rearranged to feature non-fiction items according to the four most favored customer subjects plus fiction. Everything else was arranged according to the Dewey sytem in "The Rest of the Story."