''It's over half the budget,'' Terri Frederick, the library's public relations officer, said of the levy. ''It's extremely critical. The library is at risk.''

State funding for libraries has been scaled back, thus necessitating the help from local voters, said library Director Kenneth L. Cromer.

''Their (the state legislature's) policy is the state can no longer foot the bill for libraries and local governments,'' Cromer said.

State funding is frozen at the same levels it was at in 1999, he said.

''If we're going to keep these services,'' Cromer said, ''we're going to have to ask for more.''

The libraries, Cromer said, are valuable resources to the community.

Over the last five years, system-wide borrowing has increased 25 percent.

People who reside in the Lorain City School District will vote on the five-year, 4.08-mill Lorain library levy,

Sheffield Lake voters will vote on a 2.2-mill levy for Domonkas Branch, another five-year levy.

Residents in Avon will vote on a five-year 1.2-mill renewal levy.

The levies are needed to help maintain current services, Cromer said. Without their passage, he said, officials would be forced to implement several cost-cutting measures including:

- Cutting 15 positions at the Main Library, four at the South Branch, two Bookmobile positions, four from the Domonkas Branch and four from the Avon branch.

- Reduced purchasing budgets, including cutting by half the purchasing budget (now about $747,000) for new books and magazines at the Main Library and South Branch.

- Reduced hours, including the elimination of Sunday hours at the Main Library, shortened Saturday hours and closing some mornings and evenings.

- Eliminating all 29 Bookmobile stops in Lorain and servicing only areas of the county where there are no libraries. Last year, more than 101,000 items were checked out from the Bookmobile.

In addition, half of the library's programming and 49 of 66 computer stations would be eliminated, Cromer said.

It's hard to ask people for more money in a tough economy, Cromer said, but the library is worth the additional expense.

''We know people are hurting,'' he said. ''We know it's not going to be an easy choice.''

Should the levies fail, Cromer said, in addition to making the necessary cuts, the library would most likely try to pass the levies again in November.

The levies will be marked Issue 11 for voters in Lorain, Issue 30 for Sheffield Lake voters and Issue 18 in Avon.