The Cleveland Public Library is ending fines for overdue materials.

That announcement was made during a "State of the Library" address by executive director Felton Thomas Jr. at the City Club of Cleveland on Wednesday, Feb. 27.

Thomas also laid out plans for a year-long sesquicentennial celebration that, he said, "focuses on places, programs and people."

From its start in 1869 with 5,800 books on the third floor of an office block near Public Square, the Cleveland Public Library has grown to 10.5 million items across 30 buildings as it kicks off the celebration of its 150th birthday.

"We are reinventing how we carry out our mission to best serve our community's evolving needs," Thomas said. "Our aspiration is to become the best 21st century library for the city of Cleveland."

Ending fines is a growing trend among libraries. Many library officials believe fines are a barrier to library use for some, undermining the core value of the library as a place that provides free and equal access to all the people.

In addition to a year-long series of events to celebrate the anniversary, the library is refocusing its strategic plan and extending its facilities master plan. He said the plan is to touch every library to some degree. The library also has created a philanthropic foundation to step up its fundraising efforts.

"We feel so fortunate to have been able to serve Clevelanders since 1869 and welcome the opportunity to continue to be even more of a resource going forward," Thomas said in a statement before his presentation. "We look forward to including the community in our 150th anniversary events and invite everyone to come and visit either the Main Library downtown or your closest branch."

By many accounts, the library of the future will be less a repository for physical objects and more of a community hub, a hub of information. But, as Shaker Heights native Susan Orlean writes in her recent work of nonfiction, "The Library Book," the mission of the library is as "a gathering pool of narratives and of the people who come to find them. It is where we can glimpse immortality; in the library, we can live forever."

Thomas and his staff are working to fulfill the library's mission and more with an updated master plan. That plan sees the library as a place that removes barriers to learning, sparks curiosity in individuals and helps them build skills and deepens understanding.

The facilities master plan will identify how select branch libraries could be improved and updated to better serve their surrounding neighborhoods.

To help accomplish those goals, the library is bolstering its efforts to attract philanthropic support. Its nonprofit arm, the Friends of the Cleveland Public Library, has been renamed the Cleveland Public Library Foundation and is being beefed up to better seek philanthropic support for important programs, services, and collections.

"While we are eternally grateful for the levy that was passed in 2017 and what that has enabled us to do with our branches, we know we can and want to do more for the community we serve," said Shenise Johnson Thomas, chief of external relations and development, in a news release. "Our goal is to reach and impact as many people as we can, and this foundation will help us do that."