Photo: 25or6to4 · CC BY-SA 4.0Yates Center’s library lends 7 print items per resident, against a typical 3.9 for libraries its size
Yates Center Public Library serves Yates Center’s 1,327 residents. Last year it lent 10K books, movies and e-books and logged 4,265 visits.
What Yates Center’s library is like
More library cards than residents
1,455 cards for 1,327 people. Cards held by people from outside the service area count too, so the total can pass the population. At the typical library serving under 2,500 people, it’s 54%. How it compares ↓
A small-town library
Yates Center Public Library serves 1,327 residents with about 2 full-time staff, open about 43 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 ↓
The library is a National Register landmark
Yates Center Carnegie Library has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1987. Today’s library there has 1,200 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 Yates Center’s civic life grade
On library visits, community nonprofits and volunteering, Yates Center is ahead of 88% of U.S. towns. Yates Center’s count of community nonprofits holds the grade up; library visits pull it down.
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 →
16 community nonprofits are registered in Yates Center
12.6 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 (4 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town.
11.8%
11.8% of Yates Center’s Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 8.7% in the typical Kansas 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 Yates Center’s residents live; 2022.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 3 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving under 2,500 people across the U.S.
Yates Center Public Library serves 1,327 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving under 2,500.
Every hour the doors are open, about 5 items go out
Fiscal year 2024. The library’s own count.
Mostly books and media off the shelf
10K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
Each of the 15K books and other items on the shelves went out about 0.6 time last year, on average.
925 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
25 programs a year
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 Yates Center last year.
A National Register landmark since 1987
Yates Center Public Library, 218 N Main, Yates Center.
No late fees. E-books and audiobooks from home. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy.
New in Yates Center? The Handbook →Hours are the survey’s yearly average. Check the library’s own site for today’s hours.
Yates Center Carnegie Library
Yates Center Carnegie Library was added to the National Register of Historic Places on Jun 25, 1987. It is significant for its education, architecture and social history at the local level. It was listed as part of Carnegie Libraries of Kansas TR.
The Yates Center Carnegie Library, located at 218 N. Main in Yates Center in Woodson County, Kansas, is a Carnegie library which was built in about 1912. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987. It is a one-story red brick building on a raised foundation. Designed by architect A. T. Simmons, it is about 52 by 32 feet (15.8 m × 9.8 m) in plan. It has a five-sided projecting entry bay.
More about the building →For every $1 it spends, the library lends about $1.98 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Yates Center cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $54. Operating budget $86K.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $169K worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $86K 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 1,455 cardholders ÷ 12.
What this data can and can’t tell you
From the Public Libraries Survey, fiscal year 2024.
- Visits are a typical-week estimate. Yates Center Public Library counted one typical week and multiplied by 52, as the survey allows.
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 Yates Center
Does Yates Center have a public library?
Yes. Yates Center Public Library, 218 N Main, serves Yates Center’s 1,327 residents (the survey’s count) and is open about 43 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Yates Center 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 Yates Center’s library?
It logged 3.2 visits and lent 7.7 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3.5 visits for libraries serving under 2,500 people.
What is Yates Center’s civic life grade?
A Yates Center is ahead of 88% 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 Yates Center.
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.