Chicago Public Library

Chicago Public Library
The library seal contains the Y-shaped Chicago municipal device[1][2]
Harold Washington Library – Chicago's Central Public Library
Location	Chicago, Illinois, United States
Established	1873; 151 years ago (1873)
Branches	81
Collection
Size	5,721,334 volumes (July 2010, ALA data)
Access and use
Circulation	10 million
Population served	2.8 million
Other information
Budget	$106 million
Director	Chris Brown[3]
Employees	958[4]
Website	chipublib.org

The Chicago Public Library (CPL) is the public library system that serves the City of Chicago in the U.S. state of Illinois. It consists of 81 locations, including a central library, three regional libraries, and branches distributed throughout the city's 77 Community Areas.^[5]

The American Library Association reports that the library holds 5,721,334 volumes, making it the ninth largest public library in the United States by volumes held, and the 30th largest academic or public library in the United States by volumes held. The Chicago Public Library is the second largest library system in Chicago by volumes held (the largest is the University of Chicago Library). The library is the second largest public library system in the Midwest, after the Detroit Public Library.^[6] Unlike many public libraries, CPL uses the Library of Congress cataloging classification system rather than Dewey Decimal.