The Robert P. Kinchen Central Library is the central library of the Onondaga County Public Library (OCPL) system that serves almost half a million residents in Syracuse, a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York. OCPL is chartered by the Board of Regents of the State of New York along with 22 other public library systems. The library maintains half a million volumes and circulates 1.1 million items per year. OCPL is rooted in two predecessor organizations, namely: the Onondaga Library System (OLS), organized as a cooperative non-profit association in 1962, and the Syracuse Public Library (SPL), which started as early as 1905. SPL and OLS ceased to operate independently and consolidated OCPL in 1976 for more economically feasible library services.