Permanent residents of Ohio are eligible for a free library card. Persons who go to school in Ohio, work on a permanent basis in Ohio, and those who own property in Ohio are also eligible for a free library card.

At 25,000 square feet, Carnegie West is Cleveland Public Library's largest branch. Carnegie West opened in 1910 and was designed by Edward Tilton, the architect who designed four buildings for the U.S. Immigration Station on Ellis Island in New York.

An entirely new downtown building was dedicated on April 12, 1997. With eleven floors, including the lower level, the new 267,000-square-foot building has more than 30 miles of bookshelves–enough for 1.3 million books and is equipped with the latest electronic resources.