Kittie C. McCoy House · Photo: Traveler100 · CC BY-SA 3.0Commerce Township’s library lends 6.3 print items per resident, against a typical 3.7 for libraries its size
Commerce Township Community Library serves Commerce Township’s 43,058 residents. Last year it lent 400K books, movies and e-books and logged 131K visits.
Commerce Township’s library, in brief
Still charges late fines, unlike its neighbors
Commerce Township Community Library charges late fines on some overdue items. Three of the five libraries in neighboring towns have dropped them. What your card is worth ↓
Big on e-books and audiobooks
Digital borrowing runs 3 e-items per resident, against a typical 1.2, higher than at 87% of similar-size libraries. It’s 32% of all loans. What people borrow ↓
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.
What’s behind Commerce Township’s civic life grade
On library visits, community nonprofits and volunteering, Commerce Township is ahead of 42% of U.S. towns, #542 of 697 in Michigan. The share of younger adults in volunteering groups holds the grade up; Commerce Township’s count of community nonprofits pulls it down.
Most U.S. towns with similar household incomes ($85K–$141K) 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 →
118 community nonprofits are registered in Commerce Township
2.7 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 (23 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town. 4 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
8.8%
8.8% of Commerce Township’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 Commerce Township’s residents live; 2022.
More than half the print loans are kids’ books
400K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
Each of the 100K books and other items on the shelves went out about 2.7 times last year, on average.
128,192 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 7 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people across the U.S.
Commerce Township Community Library serves 43,058 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 131 items go out
Fiscal year 2024. The library’s own count.
About 8 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 Commerce Township last year.
Find it
Commerce Township Community Library, 180 E. Commerce, Commerce Township.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Loans renew on their own if no one’s waiting. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy.
New in Commerce Township? 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 $3.09 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Commerce Township cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $40. Operating budget $2M.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $6.2M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $2M 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 13,185 cardholders ÷ 12.
Libraries next door
Commerce Township ranks 2nd of 5 for borrowing per resident. Tap a town to see its library.
| Town | Library | Loans per resident | Hours | Civic life |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Milford Township | Milford Public Library fine-free | 10.1 | 58 | B |
| Commerce Township | Commerce Township Community Library | 9.3 | 59 | C+ |
| Wixom | Wixom Public Library fine-free | 8.0 | 53 | C+ |
| White Lake Township | White Lake Township Library | 7.9 | 54 | C |
| Walled Lake | Walled Lake City Library fine-free | 5.4 | 51 | C+ |
| West Bloomfield Township | West Bloomfield Township Public Library | — | 68 | B+ |
| Wolverine Lake | 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.
- The library’s own count. Libraries report their own visits, loans and programs. A library that didn’t respond keeps its address and hours here, with no numbers.
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 Commerce Township
Does Commerce Township have a public library?
Yes. Commerce Township Community Library, 180 E. Commerce, serves Commerce Township’s 43,058 residents (the survey’s count) and is open about 59 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Commerce Township Community 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 Commerce Township’s library?
It logged 3.0 visits and lent 9.3 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 2.6 visits for libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people.
What is Commerce Township’s civic life grade?
C+ Commerce Township is ahead of 42% of U.S. towns on civic life, #542 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 Commerce Township.
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.