Many of those institutions offer customers the same rates and fees on their Web sites as they do at their neighborhood branches.

But the neighborhood branch, though only four miles and a 10-minute car ride from the Mall, is a bit hard to find for first-time travelers.

(The library still lost a little money and announced it would close its two neighborhood branches.)

Along the way, thousands of jobs have been eliminated and more than 200 neighborhood branches closed.

Lectures, performances and special events are presented by neighborhood branches.

The seven branches range in size from large regional libraries to small neighborhood branches.

Last year, Avenel was one of five neighborhood branches shut down by library trustees.

For your convenience, there is a list of all 54 neighborhood branches on the opposite side.

There are more neighborhood branches, and a growing number in supermarkets.

To be sure, on-line banking has a long way to go before it replaces the neighborhood branch.