Photo: George Bannister · CC BY 2.0New Orleans’ library logs 3 visits per resident, against a typical 2.1 for libraries its size
New Orleans Public Library serves 362,701 people in and around New Orleans from 15 locations. Last year it lent 2.2M books, movies and e-books and logged 1.1M visits.
What New Orleans’s library is like
Most of the library’s borrowing is digital
E-books, e-audiobooks and streaming make up 53% of loans, more per resident than at 82% of similar-size libraries. Print still makes up 47%. What people borrow ↓
Still charges late fines, unlike its neighbors
New Orleans Public Library charges late fines on some overdue items. All six libraries in neighboring towns have dropped them. What your card is worth ↓
15 branches in New Orleans
New Orleans has 15 branches of the New Orleans Public Library, which serves 362,701 people in and around New Orleans. One card works at all of them. The buildings ↓
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; New Orleans Public Library serves 362,701 people in and around New Orleans, and its numbers cover all of them.
What’s behind New Orleans’ civic life grade
On library visits, community nonprofits and volunteering, New Orleans is ahead of 67% of U.S. towns, #9 of 105 in Louisiana. Among the 385 U.S. cities over 100,000 we grade, it ranks #49. New Orleans’ 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 →
2,306 community nonprofits are registered in New Orleans
6.2 per 1,000 residents, against a U.S. town median of 3.7. The largest group: human services.
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 (520 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town. 114 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
8.1%
8.1% of New Orleans’ 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 New Orleans’ residents live; 2022.
53% of borrowing is digital
2.2M loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
1,185,660 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 3 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 100,000+ people across the U.S.
New Orleans Public Library serves 362,701 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 100,000+.
Every hour the doors are open, about 68 items go out
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole New Orleans Public Library system. The library’s own count.
About 38 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.
15 places to borrow in New Orleans
New Orleans Public Library, 219 Loyola Avenue, New Orleans.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Loans renew on their own if no one’s waiting. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy. Good at every New Orleans Public Library branch.
New in New Orleans? The Handbook →Hours are the survey’s yearly average. Check the library’s own site for today’s hours.
Other New Orleans Public Library branches in New Orleans
And 2 more in New Orleans.
For every $1 it spends, the library lends about $1.44 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average New Orleans cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $36. Operating budget $24M.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $34M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $24M 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 120,249 cardholders ÷ 12.
Libraries next door
Who has a library of their own, and how much each town borrows. Tap a town to see its library.
| Town | Library | Loans per resident | Hours | Civic life |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Orleans | New Orleans Public Library | — | 46 | B+ |
| Gretna | Gretna Branch fine-free | — | 48 | C− |
| Marrero | Doris Hooper Pitts Belle Terre Branch fine-free | — | 64 | — unincorporated |
| Terrytown | Terrytown Branch fine-free | — | 48 | — unincorporated |
| Metairie | Jefferson Parish Library fine-free | — | 69 | — unincorporated |
| Chalmette | St. Bernard Parish Library fine-free | — | 49 | — unincorporated |
| Jefferson | Rosedale Branch fine-free | — | 48 | — unincorporated |
| Meraux | None of its own | — | — | — unincorporated |
| Arabi | None of its own | — | — | — unincorporated |
| Violet | None of its own | — | — | — unincorporated |
| Poydras | None of its own | — | — | — unincorporated |
Loans = print + digital items borrowed in the library’s fiscal year, per person it serves. — = no library of its own, a county or regional system (its numbers cover many towns), or no report. Civic life: — = not graded (unincorporated places, whose nonprofits can’t be placed by mailing address, or towns with fewer than two of the three inputs).
What this data can and can’t tell you
From the Public Libraries Survey, fiscal year 2024.
- System-wide. New Orleans Public Library serves 362,701 people in and around New Orleans, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just New Orleans.
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 New Orleans
Does New Orleans have a public library?
Yes. New Orleans Public Library, 219 Loyola Avenue, serves 362,701 people in and around New Orleans (the survey’s count) and is open about 46 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is New Orleans Public 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 New Orleans’ library?
It logged 3.0 visits and lent 6.2 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 2.1 visits for libraries serving 100,000+ people.
What is New Orleans’ civic life grade?
B+ New Orleans is ahead of 67% of U.S. towns on civic life, #9 of 105 in Louisiana. 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 New Orleans.
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.