Roxbury Center · Photo: Pedro Xing · CC0Roxbury’s library logs 8.4 visits per resident, against a typical 3.5 for libraries its size
Minor Memorial Library serves Roxbury’s 2,297 residents. Last year it lent 17K books, movies and e-books and logged 19K visits.
What Roxbury’s library is like
Gifts and endowments pay a real share
49% of the library’s income comes from gifts, endowments, fees and other sources, not taxes. Local taxes cover 50%. What your card is worth ↓
Every town next door borrows more
Roxbury’s library lends 7.4 items per resident. Each of the four neighboring towns with a library of its own lends more, led by Southbury at 13. Libraries next door ↓
A small-town library
Minor Memorial Library serves 2,297 residents with about 2 full-time staff, open about 30 hours a week. It’s compared only with libraries serving under 2,500 people, because per-person numbers always look big in a small town. A year at the library ↓
A place to get online
Minor Memorial Library logs about 65 Wi-Fi sessions a day and has 2 public computers. That’s 10 sessions per resident a year. A year at the library ↓
Roxbury invests in its library
Minor Memorial Library spends $133 per resident a year, about twice the typical $54 for a library its size. 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; in a town this small, one busy program or a few avid readers move the per-resident numbers.
What’s behind Roxbury’s civic life grade
On library visits, community nonprofits and volunteering, Roxbury is ahead of 97% of U.S. towns. All three inputs are above most U.S. towns; Roxbury’s 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 →
20 community nonprofits are registered in Roxbury
9.2 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 (0 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town.
10.9%
10.9% of Roxbury’s Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 7.5% in the typical Connecticut 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 Roxbury’s residents live; 2022.
About 1 kids’ program 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 Roxbury last year.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 7 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving under 2,500 people across the U.S.
Minor Memorial Library serves 2,297 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving under 2,500.
Every hour the doors are open, about 11 items go out
Fiscal year 2024. The library’s own count.
Mostly books and media off the shelf
17K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
Each of the 38K books and other items on the shelves went out about 0.3 time last year, on average.
4,144 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
Find it
Minor Memorial Library, 23 South St., Roxbury.
No late fees. E-books and audiobooks from home. Loans renew on their own if no one’s waiting. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy.
New in Roxbury? 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 $1.26 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Roxbury cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $54. Operating budget $306K.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $385K worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $306K 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 869 cardholders ÷ 12.
Libraries next door
Roxbury ranks 5th of 5 for borrowing per resident. Tap a town to see its library.
| Town | Library | Loans per resident | Hours | Civic life |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southbury | Southbury Public Library | 12.8 | 59 | B+ |
| Woodbury | Woodbury Public Library fine-free | 11.8 | 52 | A |
| Bridgewater | Burnham Library fine-free | 11.3 | 32 | A+ |
| Washington | Gunn Memorial Library fine-free | 8.5 | 37 | A |
| Roxbury | Minor Memorial Library fine-free | 7.4 | 30 | A+ |
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 Roxbury
Does Roxbury have a public library?
Yes. Minor Memorial Library, 23 South St., serves Roxbury’s 2,297 residents (the survey’s count) and is open about 30 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Minor Memorial 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 Roxbury’s library?
It logged 8.4 visits and lent 7.4 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3.5 visits for libraries serving under 2,500 people.
What is Roxbury’s civic life grade?
A+ Roxbury is ahead of 97% of U.S. towns on civic life. 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 Roxbury.
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.