Westlake family visits 28 libraries over summer

The Cirincione family – Andrew, Tina, Katie and mom Jennifer – visited all 28 Cuyahoga County Public Library branches over the summer. They are pictured here in the Warrensville Heights branch.

How many times have you been to the library this summer? Twice? Three times? None? This summer my mom, my 12-year-old brother Andrew, my 9-year-old sister Tina and I visited all 28 Cuyahoga County Public Library branches.

We started the journey with the Middleburg Heights Branch on June 17 and finished it with the MetroHealth Branch on Aug. 20. At every branch, we explored, took a picture, and talked to a librarian.

All the libraries were so unique. The South Euclid-Lyndhurst Branch was in an old mansion, the MetroHealth Branch was in a hospital, and the Richmond Heights Branch was inside a shopping plaza! The librarians also shared interesting facts with us if we asked about a branch.

We live in Westlake, and a lot of the libraries were pretty far away, such as the Gates Mills Library Branch, which was 38.1 miles away. To be more efficient, we went to multiple libraries in one trip. The most libraries we went to in one day was five!

About halfway through the summer, my mom submitted an article about what we were doing to the Cuyahoga County Public Library headquarters. They published it in their staff newsletter, and sometimes we would meet people who had heard of us over 20 miles away! It felt like we were celebrities!

My favorite part of this adventure was getting to see all the special things about each library and learning facts about each branch from the librarians. I had a lot of fun on this project and learning more about the county I live in.

See this story on wbvobserver.com for an image gallery of the Cirincione family's Cuyahoga County library tour.

Read More on Libraries
Volume 6, Issue 18, Posted 9:41 AM, 09.03.2014