The Ritter Public Library provides free Notary Public services for the benefit of the residents of our community. Due to limited availability, we encourage library customers to call ahead to ensure that a Notary will be available.
The following guidelines will be followed for the provision of this service:
Note that documents to be notarized must be signed in front of the Notary (do not sign them beforehand).
The document to be notarized must be completely filled out with the exception of the signature prior to being notarized. Library Notaries may not notarize any document that is not completely filled out.
Documents in any language other than English will not be notarized.
Notary service is not available for deeds, wills, living wills, living trusts, codicils, depositions, mortgage, real estate closing documents, or power of attorney documents.
Copies of certain public documents will not be notarized. Some examples of these are: birth certificates, death certificates and marriage certificates.
The Notary must have satisfactory evidence that the person executing the document(s) is the person described in the instrument.
The person who will sign the document must provide the Notary with at least one valid form of identification that provides a physical description of the signer. The Notary may decline to notarize a document if the signer cannot provide valid identification. Acceptable forms of identification are:
- A current passport from any country, written in a language that the Notary can read;
- A valid driver’s license from any state of the United States;
- A valid non-driver’s photo identification card from any state of the United States; or
- A United States Military identification card.
Library notaries will not notarize documents where a power of attorney is signing on someone’s behalf.
The library will not provide witnesses and witnesses may not be solicited from library staff or customers using the library. In order to serve as a witness, the witness must personally know the person whose document is being notarized and must be in possession of valid photo identification.
Notaries are required to follow Ohio Revised Code Chapter 147. Notaries will not provide service if a patron, document, or circumstance of the request for Notary service raise any issue of authenticity, ambiguity, doubt, or uncertainty. The library Notary may, at his or her sole discretion, decline to provide Notary service for any reason.
Notaries cannot provide legal advice.
Adopted by the Ritter Public Board of Trustees on December, 2017
Amended on June 10, 2025