Main Street Historic District-Winters · Photo: Brian Wickstrom · CC BY-SA 3.0Winters’ library is a branch of Yolo County Library, which lends more per resident than 88% of systems its size
Winters’s library is the Winters Community Library, a branch of Yolo County Library, which serves 160,994 people and lent 1.5M items last year.
What stands out about Winters Community Library
Read from the library’s own yearly report. The page puts what stands out first.
What’s behind Winters’ civic life grade
On community nonprofits and volunteering, Winters is ahead of 74% of U.S. towns, #81 of 448 in California. Winters is graded on two of the three inputs. Both inputs are above most U.S. towns; Winters’ count of community nonprofits ranks 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 →
40 community nonprofits are registered in Winters
5.3 per 1,000 residents, against a U.S. town median of 3.7. The largest group: education.
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 (5 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town. 1 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
8.1%
8.1% of Winters’ 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 Winters’ residents live; 2022.
Mostly books and media off the shelf
1.5M loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
264,300 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 7 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 100,000+ people across the U.S.
Yolo County Library serves 160,994 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 100,000+.
Every hour the doors are open, about 118 items go out
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole Yolo County Library system. The library’s own count.
About 20 kids’ programs a week
Story times, clubs, classes and events, across the whole system, by who they’re for.
Programs last year by age group
story times and programs a week for ages 0–5, on average.
Find it
Winters Community Library, 708 Railroad Avenue, Winters.
No late fees. E-books and audiobooks from home. Loans renew on their own if no one’s waiting. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy. Good at every Yolo County Library branch.
New in Winters? 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 $2.35 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Winters cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $36. Operating budget $1M.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $24M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $1M budget.
Fine-free. No late fees on books returned late.
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 52,149 cardholders ÷ 12.
What this data can and can’t tell you
From the Public Libraries Survey, fiscal year 2024.
- System-wide. Winters Community Library is one branch of Yolo County Library, so the yearly numbers cover every branch and all 160,994 people it serves.
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 Winters
Does Winters have a public library?
Yes: Winters Community Library, 708 Railroad Avenue, is a branch of Yolo County Library, which serves 160,994 people. The branch is open about 50 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Yolo County Library fine-free? Does it lend e-books?
Yes to both: no late fees, and e-books, audiobooks and research databases with a card (the library’s 2024 survey report).
How busy is Winters’ library?
It logged 3.2 visits and lent 9.6 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 2.1 visits for libraries serving 100,000+ people.
What is Winters’ civic life grade?
B+ Winters is ahead of 74% of U.S. towns on civic life, #81 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 Winters.
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.