Photo: Sharon Phelan Evans · CC BY-SA 3.0Vestavia Hills’ library logs 8.6 visits per resident, against a typical 2.6 for libraries its size
Vestavia Hills Library in the Forest serves Vestavia Hills’s 38,292 residents. Last year it lent 464K books, movies and e-books and logged 329K visits.
What Vestavia Hills’s library is like
Vestavia Hills ranks 3rd in Alabama for library use
Out of 71 Alabama towns with a library of their own, Vestavia Hills comes 3rd for visits per resident. How it compares ↓
Big on e-books and audiobooks
Digital borrowing runs 4.6 e-items per resident, against a typical 1.2, higher than at 96% of similar-size libraries. It’s 38% of all loans. What people borrow ↓
Vestavia Hills invests in its library
Vestavia Hills Library in the Forest spends $87 per resident a year, about twice the typical $40 for a library its size. Almost all of it (93%) comes from local taxes. What your card is worth ↓
This summary is written from the numbers on this page. Numbers are the library’s own report to the Public Libraries Survey, fiscal year 2024.
What’s behind Vestavia Hills’ civic life grade
On library visits, community nonprofits and volunteering, Vestavia Hills is ahead of 76% of U.S. towns, #6 of 156 in Alabama. All three inputs are above most U.S. towns; library visits rank highest.
Civic life counts registered nonprofits, library visits and online volunteering groups, so it can miss civic life that runs through congregations, mutual aid or neighbors looking out for each other.
Library visits: IMLS Public Libraries Survey, FY2024. Nonprofits: IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File, October 2026. Volunteering: Social Capital Atlas (Opportunity Insights), from data by Meta Platforms, Inc.; Chetty et al., Nature 2022. How TownRatings grades civic life →
166 community nonprofits are registered in Vestavia Hills
4.3 per 1,000 residents, against a U.S. town median of 3.7. The largest group: human services.
Community nonprofits, by kind
Counted from the IRS list of tax-exempt organizations by mailing address (fractions where a ZIP code spans towns). Congregations are counted apart (37 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town. 7 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
7.6%
7.6% of Vestavia Hills’ Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 4.8% in the typical Alabama town and 7.5% nationally.
Volunteering: Social Capital Atlas (Opportunity Insights), from data by Meta Platforms, Inc.; Chetty et al., Nature 2022. ZIP-code figures, weighted by where Vestavia Hills’ residents live; 2022.
Every hour the doors are open, about 152 items go out
Fiscal year 2024. The library’s own count.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on all 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people across the U.S.
Vestavia Hills Library in the Forest serves 38,292 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000.
More than half the print loans are kids’ books
464K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
Each of the 85K books and other items on the shelves went out about 3.4 times last year, on average.
177,466 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
About 6 kids’ programs a week
Story times, clubs, classes and events, by who they’re for.
Programs last year by age group
story times and programs a week for ages 0–5, on average.
children’s books and media borrowed per child under 18 in Vestavia Hills last year.
Find it
Vestavia Hills Library in the Forest, 1221 Montgomery Highway, Vestavia Hills.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Loans renew on their own if no one’s waiting. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy.
New in Vestavia Hills? The Handbook →Hours are the survey’s yearly average. Check the library’s own site for today’s hours.
For every $1 it spends, the library lends about $2.17 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Vestavia Hills cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $40. Operating budget $3.3M.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $7.3M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $3.3M budget.
Late fines apply to some overdue items.
Retail prices are typical, rounded down: a new book $17, a kids’ book $12, an e-book or e-audiobook $15, a movie rental $4, a class or program $10, a computer or Wi-Fi session $3. The average cardholder’s month = the library’s yearly loans, attendance and Wi-Fi sessions ÷ its 17,234 cardholders ÷ 12.
Libraries next door
Vestavia Hills ranks 4th of 6 for borrowing per resident. Tap a town to see its library.
| Town | Library | Loans per resident | Hours | Civic life |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mountain Brook | Mountain Brook - Emmet O'Neal Library fine-free | 19.9 | 59 | A |
| Homewood | Homewood Public Library | 19.4 | 63 | A− |
| Hoover | Hoover Public Library | 14.9 | 64 | B |
| Vestavia Hills | Vestavia Hills Library in the Forest | 12.1 | 59 | A− |
| Irondale | Irondale Public Library | 5.8 | 40 | B |
| Birmingham | Birmingham Public - Central Branch | 3.2 | 52 | B |
Loans = print + digital items borrowed in the library’s fiscal year, per person it serves. — = no library of its own, a county or regional system (its numbers cover many towns), or no report. Civic life: — = not graded (unincorporated places, whose nonprofits can’t be placed by mailing address, or towns with fewer than two of the three inputs).
What this data can and can’t tell you
From the Public Libraries Survey, fiscal year 2024.
- The library’s own count. Libraries report their own visits, loans and programs. A library that didn’t respond keeps its address and hours here, with no numbers.
Hours are the survey’s yearly average; libraries are compared with others serving about as many people. How TownRatings uses library figures →
Questions about the library and civic life in Vestavia Hills
Does Vestavia Hills have a public library?
Yes. Vestavia Hills Library in the Forest, 1221 Montgomery Highway, serves Vestavia Hills’ 38,292 residents (the survey’s count) and is open about 59 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Vestavia Hills Library in the Forest fine-free? Does it lend e-books?
It charges late fines on some overdue items, and it lends e-books and audiobooks with a card (the library’s 2024 survey report).
How busy is Vestavia Hills’ library?
It logged 8.6 visits and lent 12.1 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 2.6 visits for libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people.
What is Vestavia Hills’ civic life grade?
A− Vestavia Hills is ahead of 76% of U.S. towns on civic life, #6 of 156 in Alabama. The grade combines library visits per resident, community nonprofits per 1,000 residents and the share of adults 25–44 in volunteering groups. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
Book talk
Reading, story times and the library in Vestavia Hills.
Libraries: Institute of Museum and Library Services, Public Libraries Survey, fiscal year 2024. Each library reports its own numbers. Distances are straight-line from the town center. “What your card is worth” uses typical retail prices and is an estimate, not an official figure.