Fulton County Courthouse · Photo: Kelly Donaldson · CC BY-SA 3.0Rochester’s library lends 8.6 print items per resident, against a typical 3.9 for libraries its size
Fulton County Public Library serves 16,149 people in and around Rochester. Last year it lent 193K books, movies and e-books and logged 87K visits.
What Rochester’s library is like
Big on e-books and audiobooks
Digital borrowing runs 3.3 e-items per resident, against a typical 1.1, higher than at 91% of similar-size libraries. It’s 28% of all loans. What people borrow ↓
A well-funded system
Fulton County Public Library spends $114 per resident a year, about twice the typical $43 for a library its size. Almost all of it (94%) 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; Fulton County Public Library serves 16,149 people in and around Rochester, and its numbers cover all of them.
What’s behind Rochester’s civic life grade
On community nonprofits and volunteering, Rochester is ahead of 96% of U.S. towns, #31 of 571 in Indiana. Rochester is graded on two of the three inputs. Both inputs are above most U.S. towns; the share of younger adults in volunteering groups 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 →
33 community nonprofits are registered in Rochester
5.4 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 (10 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town.
20.5%
20.5% of Rochester’s Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 9.1% in the typical Indiana 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 Rochester’s residents live; 2022.
Mostly books and media off the shelf
193K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
54,079 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 10,000 to 25,000 people across the U.S.
Fulton County Public Library serves 16,149 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 27 items go out
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole Fulton County Public Library system. The library’s own count.
About 7 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
Fulton County Public Library, 320 West 7th Street, Rochester.
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 Fulton County Public Library branch.
New in Rochester? 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 $1.69 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Rochester cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $43. Operating budget $1.8M.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $3.1M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $1.8M 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 5,145 cardholders ÷ 12.
What this data can and can’t tell you
From the Public Libraries Survey, fiscal year 2024.
- System-wide. Fulton County Public Library serves 16,149 people in and around Rochester, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Rochester.
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 Rochester
Does Rochester have a public library?
Yes. Fulton County Public Library, 320 West 7th Street, serves 16,149 people in and around Rochester (the survey’s count) and is open about 49 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Fulton County Public 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 Rochester’s library?
It logged 5.4 visits and lent 11.9 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3.1 visits for libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000 people.
What is Rochester’s civic life grade?
A+ Rochester is ahead of 96% of U.S. towns on civic life, #31 of 571 in Indiana. 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 Rochester.
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.