Photo: Frank Schulenburg · CC BY-SA 4.0Butte County Public Law Library didn’t send its yearly numbers to the Public Libraries Survey
Butte County Public Law Library serves 1 people in and around Oroville.
What stands out about Butte County Public Law Library
Read from the library’s own yearly report. The page puts what stands out first.
What’s behind Oroville’s civic life grade
On community nonprofits and volunteering, Oroville is ahead of 22% of U.S. towns, #226 of 448 in California. Oroville is graded on two of the three inputs. Both inputs sit below most U.S. towns; Oroville’s count of community nonprofits comes closest to the middle.
Most U.S. towns with similar household incomes ($39K–$65K) score higher, so income alone doesn’t account for it.
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 →
60 community nonprofits are registered in Oroville
3.0 per 1,000 residents, against a U.S. town median of 3.7. The largest group: civic groups, clubs & veterans.
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 (23 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town. 2 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
6.2%
6.2% of Oroville’s Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 5.9% in the typical California 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 Oroville’s residents live; 2022.
A National Register landmark since 2007
Butte County Public Law Library, 1675 Montgomery Street, Oroville.
Hours are the survey’s yearly average. Check the library’s own site for today’s hours.
Oroville Carnegie Library
Oroville Carnegie Library was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 8, 2007. It is significant for its architecture and social history at the local level. Its architecture is described as Classical Revival. It was listed as part of California Carnegie Libraries MPS.
The Oroville Carnegie Library, at 1675 Montgomery St. in Oroville, California, was built in 1912. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007. It is a two-story Carnegie library designed by architect William Henry Weeks in Classical Revival style. It is now the Butte County Public Law Library
More about the building →Other Butte County Public Law Library branches in Oroville
Libraries next door
Who has a library of their own, and how much each town borrows. Tap a town to see its library.
| Town | Library | Loans per resident | Hours | Civic life |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oroville | Butte County Public Law Library | — | — | C− |
| Oroville East | None of its own | — | — | — unincorporated |
| Thermalito | None of its own | — | — | — unincorporated |
| South Oroville | None of its own | — | — | — unincorporated |
| Palermo | None of its own | — | — | — unincorporated |
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.
- System-wide. Butte County Public Law Library serves 1 people in and around Oroville, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Oroville.
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 Oroville
Does Oroville have a public library?
Yes. Butte County Public Law Library, 1675 Montgomery Street, serves 1 people in and around Oroville (the survey’s count).
What is Oroville’s civic life grade?
C− Oroville is ahead of 22% of U.S. towns on civic life, #226 of 448 in California. 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 Oroville.
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. Building history: National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places; photo via Wikimedia Commons. “What your card is worth” uses typical retail prices and is an estimate, not an official figure.