Photo: Robert Jones · CC BY-SA 4.0Livingston’s library lends 2.7 print items per resident, against a typical 3.2 for libraries its size
Livingston Parish Library serves 152,886 people in and around Livingston. Last year it lent 702K books, movies and e-books and logged 319K visits.
What stands out about Livingston Parish Library
Read from the library’s own yearly report. The page puts what stands out first.
What’s behind Livingston’s civic life grade
On community nonprofits and volunteering, Livingston is ahead of 24% of U.S. towns. Livingston is graded on two of the three inputs. The share of younger adults in volunteering groups holds the grade up; Livingston’s count of community nonprofits pulls it down.
Most U.S. towns with similar household incomes ($46K–$77K) 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 →
3 community nonprofits are registered in Livingston
1.6 per 1,000 residents, against a U.S. town median of 3.7. The largest group: youth, sports & recreation.
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 (2 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town.
7.9%
7.9% of Livingston’s Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 5.9% in the typical Louisiana 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 Livingston’s residents live; 2022.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 4 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 100,000+ people across the U.S.
Livingston Parish Library serves 152,886 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 100,000+.
Every hour the doors are open, about 43 items go out
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole Livingston Parish Library system. The library’s own count.
40% of borrowing is digital
702K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
282,696 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
About 13 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
Livingston Parish Library, 20390 Iowa Street, Livingston.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Loans renew on their own if no one’s waiting. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy. Good at every Livingston Parish Library branch.
New in Livingston? 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 $1.79 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Livingston cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $36. Operating budget $6.1M.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $11M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $6.1M budget.
Late fines apply to some overdue items.
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 67,439 cardholders ÷ 12.
What this data can and can’t tell you
From the Public Libraries Survey, fiscal year 2024.
- System-wide. Livingston Parish Library serves 152,886 people in and around Livingston, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Livingston.
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 Livingston
Does Livingston have a public library?
Yes. Livingston Parish Library, 20390 Iowa Street, serves 152,886 people in and around Livingston (the survey’s count) and is open about 56 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Livingston Parish Library fine-free? Does it lend e-books?
It charges late fines on some overdue items, and it lends e-books and audiobooks with a card (the library’s 2024 survey report).
How busy is Livingston’s library?
It logged 2.1 visits and lent 4.6 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 2.1 visits for libraries serving 100,000+ people.
What is Livingston’s civic life grade?
C− Livingston is ahead of 24% 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 Livingston.
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.