Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Liberty

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
City Hall in Liberty, KentuckyPhoto: Nyttend · Public domain
Casey County Public Library

Liberty’s library logs 2.1 visits per resident, against a typical 3.1 for libraries its size

Casey County Public Library serves 15,918 people in and around Liberty. Last year it lent 58K books, movies and e-books and logged 33K visits.

238 Middleburg Street, Liberty 42539 · about 51 hours a week
B−Civic lifeAhead of 48% of U.S. towns. Nonprofits and volunteering.
Borrowed a year
58K
3.6 per resident
Visits a year
33K
2.1 per resident · Below typical (3.1)
Programs & events
386
about 7 a week · 8,816 attended
Cardholders
60%
9,627 cards
Open
51 hrs
a week at this branch

What stands out about Casey County Public Library

Read from the library’s own yearly report. The page puts what stands out first.

Civic life grade

What’s behind Liberty’s civic life grade

On community nonprofits and volunteering, Liberty is ahead of 48% of U.S. towns. Liberty is graded on two of the three inputs. The share of younger adults in volunteering groups holds the grade up; Liberty’s count of community nonprofits pulls it down.

B−
Civic lifeA character grade: shown, never part of Liberty’s overall grade.
All U.S. towns we grade (17,556)Ahead of 48%
FewerMore
U.S. towns with similar incomes, $22K–$36K (353)Ahead of 77%

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.

How sure. Graded on two inputs, so a change in either one moves the letter more than it would with three. Liberty is small (2,021 residents), so a few dozen organizations or visits move its per-resident figures; the volunteering share is a 2022 estimate from Facebook users aged 25–44.

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 →

Places to belong

6 community nonprofits are registered in Liberty

3.4 per 1,000 residents, against a U.S. town median of 3.7. The largest group: education.

Community nonprofits, by kind

Arts & culture00.12 per 1,000 · U.S. towns 0.24
Youth, sports & recreation00.24 per 1,000 · U.S. towns 0.52
Civic groups, clubs & veterans10.60 per 1,000 · U.S. towns 0.74
Human services10.72 per 1,000 · U.S. towns 0.59
Education21.32 per 1,000 · U.S. towns 0.43
Health00.00 per 1,000 · U.S. towns 0.16
Environment & animals00.12 per 1,000 · U.S. towns 0.17

Counted from the IRS list of tax-exempt organizations by mailing address (fractions where a ZIP code spans towns). Congregations are counted apart (3 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town.

Volunteering

8.1%

8.1% of Liberty’s Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 6.6% in the typical Kentucky 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 Liberty’s residents live; 2022.

★ What stands out · How it compares

Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 3 of 8 measures

Per resident, against libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000 people across the U.S.

Visits per resident 2.1 visits · typical 3.1Lower than 69%
Borrowing per resident 2.9 print items · typical 3.9Lower than 64%
Digital borrowing 0.7 e-items · typical 1.1Lower than 64%
Kids’ borrowing 0.8 kids’ items · typical 1.8Lower than 75%
Program attendance 0.6 attendees · typical 0.4Higher than 61%
Programs offered 24.2 per 1,000 residents · typical 24Higher than 51%
Cardholders 60% of residents · typical 40%Higher than 80%
Spending $37 per resident · typical $43Lower than 59%
Fewer per residentMore per resident
Size group

Casey County Public Library serves 15,918 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000.

A year at the library

Every hour the doors are open, about 17 items go out

Fiscal year 2024, for the whole Casey County Public Library system. The library’s own count.

33K
visits
2.1 per resident
58K
loans, print + digital
3.6 per resident
386
programs & events
8,816 attended
9,627
library cards
60% of people served
Every open hour17items borrowed
Every week170people at a program
Every day116Wi-Fi sessions
11 staff (full-time equivalent)19 public computers
What people borrow

Mostly books and media off the shelf

58K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.

58Kloans
Books & media (adults) 58%Kids’ books & media 22%E-books, audio & streaming 20%
From your couch

11,603 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.

Kids & programs

About 3 kids’ programs a week

Story times, clubs, classes and events, across the whole system, by who they’re for.

Schools in Liberty →

Programs last year by age group

Ages 0–5123
Ages 6–1135
Teens34
Adults122
All ages72
Little ones
2.4

story times and programs a week for ages 0–5, on average.

12K
kids’ books & media borrowed
8,816
people at programs
386
programs
The building

Find it

Casey County Public Library, 238 Middleburg Street, Liberty.

51
hours open a week
11,973
square feet
With a card

No late fees. E-books and audiobooks from home. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy. Good at every Casey County Public Library branch.

New in Liberty? The Handbook →

Hours are the survey’s yearly average. Check the library’s own site for today’s hours.

What your card is worth

For every $1 it spends, the library lends about $1.88 worth

Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Liberty cardholder borrows.

In a month I’d use…
Books$17 each
1
Kids’ books$12 each
0
E-books & audio$15 each
0
Movies & music$4 each
0
Programs & classes$10 a program
0
Computer & Wi-Fi$3 a session
0
Your card saves you about
$204
a year at retail prices · $17 a month

Who pays for it
$37 per resident a year

Typical for a library this size: $43. Operating budget $591K.

Local taxes 83%State 11%Gifts & other 5%

Last year the library lent and hosted about $1.1M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $591K 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 9,627 cardholders ÷ 12.

How to read these numbers

What this data can and can’t tell you

From the Public Libraries Survey, fiscal year 2024.

  • System-wide. Casey County Public Library serves 15,918 people in and around Liberty, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Liberty.

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 Liberty

Does Liberty have a public library?

Yes. Casey County Public Library, 238 Middleburg Street, serves 15,918 people in and around Liberty (the survey’s count) and is open about 51 hours a week, averaged over the year.

Is Casey 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 Liberty’s library?

It logged 2.1 visits and lent 3.6 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3.1 visits for libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000 people.

What is Liberty’s civic life grade?

B− Liberty is ahead of 48% 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 Liberty.

Town Square →
Start a conversation

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.