Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0Ruston’s library logs 2.7 visits per resident, against a typical 2.6 for libraries its size
Lincoln Parish Library serves 48,243 people in and around Ruston. Last year it lent 230K books, movies and e-books and logged 131K visits.
What Ruston’s library is like
Open about 66 hours a week
The Ruston branch is open about 66 hours a week, averaged over the year. The building ↓
Programs lean toward adults
51% of the 658 programs last year were for adults: classes, talks, clubs and events. 253 were for children. Kids & programs ↓
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; Lincoln Parish Library serves 48,243 people in and around Ruston, and its numbers cover all of them.
What’s behind Ruston’s civic life grade
On community nonprofits and volunteering, Ruston is ahead of 55% of U.S. towns, #17 of 105 in Louisiana. Ruston is graded on two of the three inputs. Ruston’s count of community nonprofits holds the grade up; the share of younger adults in volunteering groups pulls 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 →
166 community nonprofits are registered in Ruston
7.5 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 (35 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town. 3 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
5.4%
5.4% of Ruston’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 Ruston’s residents live; 2022.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 4 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people across the U.S.
Lincoln Parish Library serves 48,243 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 67 items go out
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole Lincoln Parish Library system. The library’s own count.
Mostly books and media off the shelf
230K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
60,588 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
About 5 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
Lincoln Parish Library, 910 North Trenton Street, Ruston.
No late fees. E-books and audiobooks from home. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy. Good at every Lincoln Parish Library branch.
New in Ruston? 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 $2.17 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Ruston cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $40. Operating budget $1.7M.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $3.8M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $1.7M 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 30,238 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ruston | Lincoln Parish Library fine-free | — | 66 | B |
| Grambling | None of its own | — | — | C |
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. Lincoln Parish Library serves 48,243 people in and around Ruston, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Ruston.
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 Ruston
Does Ruston have a public library?
Yes. Lincoln Parish Library, 910 North Trenton Street, serves 48,243 people in and around Ruston (the survey’s count) and is open about 66 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Lincoln Parish 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 Ruston’s library?
It logged 2.7 visits and lent 4.8 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 2.6 visits for libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people.
What is Ruston’s civic life grade?
B Ruston is ahead of 55% of U.S. towns on civic life, #17 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 Ruston.
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.