Photo: Nyttend · Public domainVienna’s library lends 4.9 print items per resident, against a typical 3.9 for libraries its size
Vienna Carnegie Public Library serves Vienna’s 1,343 residents. Last year it lent 8,155 books, movies and e-books and logged 4,400 visits.
What Vienna’s library is like
Few programs for a library this size
Vienna Carnegie Public Library offered 4 programs last year, 3 per 1,000 residents against a typical 60. Kids & programs ↓
A small-town library
Vienna Carnegie Public Library serves 1,343 residents with about one full-time staff. 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 ↓
Gifts and endowments pay a real share
34% of the library’s income comes from gifts, endowments, fees and other sources, not taxes. Local taxes cover 47%. What your card is worth ↓
Open only about 20 hours a week
Vienna Carnegie Public Library keeps short hours: about 20 a week, averaged over the year, so check its schedule before you go. The building ↓
The library is a National Register landmark
Vienna Public Library has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1995. Today’s library there has 1,500 square feet. The building ↓
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 Vienna’s civic life grade
On community nonprofits and volunteering, Vienna is ahead of 34% of U.S. towns. Vienna is graded on two of the three inputs. The share of younger adults in volunteering groups holds the grade up; Vienna’s count of community nonprofits pulls it down.
Most U.S. towns with similar household incomes ($31K–$51K) 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 →
4 community nonprofits are registered in Vienna
1.9 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 (1 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town.
8.9%
8.9% of Vienna’s Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 8.1% in the typical Illinois 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 Vienna’s residents live; 2022.
4 programs a year
Story times, clubs, classes and events, by who they’re for.
Programs last year by age group
children’s books and media borrowed per child under 18 in Vienna last year.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 3 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving under 2,500 people across the U.S.
Vienna Carnegie Public Library serves 1,343 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving under 2,500.
Every hour the doors are open, about 8 items go out
Fiscal year 2024. The library’s own count.
More than half the print loans are kids’ books
8,155 loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
Each of the 11K books and other items on the shelves went out about 0.6 time last year, on average.
1,540 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card.
A National Register landmark since 1995
Vienna Carnegie Public Library, 401 Poplar Street, Vienna.
Hours are the survey’s yearly average. Check the library’s own site for today’s hours.
Vienna Public Library
Vienna Public Library was added to the National Register of Historic Places on Jan 24, 1995. It is significant for its education, social history and medicine at the local level. Its architecture is described as Classical Revival. It was listed as part of Illinois Carnegie Libraries MPS.
The Vienna Public Library, also known as Vienna Carnegie Library, is a Carnegie library at 401 Poplar St. in Vienna, Illinois. It was built in 1911 with a $5000 grant from the Carnegie Foundation. The brick building, designed by local architect Thomas Clymer, features a tall flight of stairs leading to the front entrance; two pilasters flank the staircase.
More about the building →For every $1 it spends, the library lends about $4.46 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Vienna cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $54. Operating budget $25K.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $114K worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $25K 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 135 cardholders ÷ 12.
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 Vienna
Does Vienna have a public library?
Yes. Vienna Carnegie Public Library, 401 Poplar Street, serves Vienna’s 1,343 residents (the survey’s count) and is open about 20 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Vienna Carnegie Public Library fine-free? Does it lend e-books?
Yes to both: no late fees, and e-books, audiobooks with a card (the library’s 2024 survey report).
How busy is Vienna’s library?
It logged 3.3 visits and lent 6.1 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3.5 visits for libraries serving under 2,500 people.
What is Vienna’s civic life grade?
C Vienna is ahead of 34% 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 Vienna.
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.