Photo: Bmburch · CC BY-SA 4.0Clawson’s library logs 5.5 visits per resident, against a typical 3.1 for libraries its size
Blair Memorial Library serves Clawson’s 11,389 residents. Last year it lent 70K books, movies and e-books and logged 62K visits.
What stands out about Clawson’s library
Read from the library’s own yearly report. The page puts what stands out first.
What’s behind Clawson’s civic life grade
On library visits, community nonprofits and volunteering, Clawson is ahead of 72% of U.S. towns, #251 of 697 in Michigan. Library visits hold the grade up; Clawson’s count of community nonprofits 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 →
42 community nonprofits are registered in Clawson
3.7 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 (13 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town. 1 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
8.9%
8.9% of Clawson’s Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 12.4% in the typical Michigan 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 Clawson’s residents live; 2022.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 4 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000 people across the U.S.
Blair Memorial Library serves 11,389 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 36 items go out
Fiscal year 2024. The library’s own count.
More than half the print loans are kids’ books
70K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
Each of the 71K books and other items on the shelves went out about 0.7 time last year, on average.
20,634 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
About 2 kids’ programs a week
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 Clawson last year.
Find it
Blair Memorial Library, 416 North Main Street, Clawson.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Loans renew on their own if no one’s waiting. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy.
New in Clawson? 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 $2.82 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Clawson cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $43. Operating budget $402K.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $1.1M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $402K 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 3,379 cardholders ÷ 12.
Libraries next door
Clawson ranks 3rd of 3 for borrowing per resident. Tap a town to see its library.
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.
- Visits are a typical-week estimate. Blair Memorial 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 Clawson
Does Clawson have a public library?
Yes. Blair Memorial Library, 416 North Main Street, serves Clawson’s 11,389 residents (the survey’s count) and is open about 38 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Blair Memorial 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 Clawson’s library?
It logged 5.5 visits and lent 6.2 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3.1 visits for libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000 people.
What is Clawson’s civic life grade?
B+ Clawson is ahead of 72% of U.S. towns on civic life, #251 of 697 in Michigan. 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 Clawson.
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.