The system operated by the Public Library of Steubenville and Jefferson County is a true asset to residents across the region.

One of the reasons it can provide the multitude of services it does is money generated from its 1-mill levy. The five-year issue, which generates approximately $1.5 million a year and represents one-third of the system’s revenue, is up for renewal on the Nov. 4 ballot, and voters should approve it.

Libraries have traditionally been known as places where you can find books. Today’s libraries, however, offer much more. They are places where area residents can look for jobs, entertain themselves, connect with friends, trace their genealogy, learn new skills, study history and, yes, find a good book to read.

Voters passed the original levy in 2010, and it was renewed in 2015 and 2020. The cost of the levy works out to about $23 a year for a person who owns a home worth $100,000, and that, library officials remind, is about the cost of a single book these days.

And, they point out, money generated by the levy goes solely to operating expenses.

Area residents make good use of the library’s offerings. At the end of last year, the library had 22,889 library card holders and had registered 2,569 new cardholders. Internet usage continues to grow: Patrons made 54,135 WiFi connections, made use of 373 hotspot borrows and made 55,852 website visits.

Borrows from its physical collection totaled 239,767. There were 44,455 borrows through the Libby digital service, an app for ebooks and audiobooks, and 64,659 borrows through Hoopla, a digital service for movies, music and videobooks.

There are many other services offered through the library, as the 3,560 notary transactions indicate.

Also available to patrons are the Makerspace, which provides equipment including 3-D printers, a laser engraver and a button maker, and the Library of Things, which allows patrons 18 and older who hold a library card in good standing to borrow useful items, electronics, musical instruments, games, museum passes and more.

Officials with the library are continually looking to the future and to find new ways to serve the community. That means considering ways services can be improved and added at each of the library’s facilities, including the Main Library on Fourth Street in Steubenville; the bookmobile service; branches that serve Adena, Brilliant, Dillonvale and Mount Pleasant, the Schiappa branch on Mall Drive in Steubenville, Tiltonsville and Toronto; and, coming next year, a branch in Bergholz.

The library offers much to area residents, and its 1-mill, five-year renewal levy should be approved when they cast their ballots in the Nov. 4 election.