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Clayton Branch Library · part of Lenawee District Library

Dover Township’s library is a branch of Lenawee District Library, which lends less per resident than 60% of systems its size

Dover Township’s library is the Clayton Branch Library, a branch of Lenawee District Library, which serves 40,514 people and lent 161K items last year.

3457 State Street, Clayton 49235 · about 17 hours a week
BCivic lifeAhead of 55% of U.S. towns. Nonprofits and volunteering.
Borrowed a year
161K
4 per resident
Visits a year
50K
1.2 per resident · Below typical (2.6)
Programs & events
815
about 16 a week · 16K attended
Cardholders
23%
9,415 cards
Open
17 hrs
a week at this branch

What stands out about Clayton Branch Library

Read from the library’s own yearly report. The page puts what stands out first.

Civic life grade

What’s behind Dover Township’s civic life grade

On community nonprofits and volunteering, Dover Township is ahead of 55% of U.S. towns. Dover Township is graded on two of the three inputs. The share of younger adults in volunteering groups holds the grade up; Dover Township’s count of community nonprofits pulls it down.

B
Civic lifeA character grade: shown, never part of Dover Township’s overall grade.
All U.S. towns we grade (17,556)Ahead of 55%
FewerMore
U.S. towns with similar incomes, $55K–$92K (9,255)Ahead of 54%

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.

How sure. Graded on two inputs, so a change in either one moves the letter more than it would with three. Dover Township is small (1,645 residents), so a few dozen organizations or visits move its per-resident figures; the volunteering share is a 2022 estimate from Facebook users aged 25–44.

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 →

Places to belong

3 community nonprofits are registered in Dover Township

1.7 per 1,000 residents, against a U.S. town median of 3.7. The largest group: human services.

Community nonprofits, by kind

Arts & culture00.06 per 1,000 · U.S. towns 0.24
Youth, sports & recreation00.17 per 1,000 · U.S. towns 0.52
Civic groups, clubs & veterans00.23 per 1,000 · U.S. towns 0.74
Human services10.52 per 1,000 · U.S. towns 0.59
Education00.17 per 1,000 · U.S. towns 0.43
Health00.00 per 1,000 · U.S. towns 0.16
Environment & animals10.40 per 1,000 · U.S. towns 0.17

Counted from the IRS list of tax-exempt organizations by mailing address (fractions where a ZIP code spans towns). Congregations are counted apart (1 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town.

Volunteering

15.4%

15.4% of Dover 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 Dover Township’s residents live; 2022.

How it compares

Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 2 of 8 measures

Per resident, against libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people across the U.S.

Visits per resident 1.2 visits · typical 2.6Lower than 84%
Borrowing per resident 3 print items · typical 3.7Lower than 60%
Digital borrowing 1 e-items · typical 1.2Lower than 57%
Kids’ borrowing 1.2 kids’ items · typical 1.7Lower than 64%
Program attendance 0.4 attendees · typical 0.3Higher than 61%
Programs offered 20.1 per 1,000 residents · typical 14Higher than 69%
Cardholders 23% of residents · typical 39%Lower than 81%
Spending $27 per resident · typical $40Lower than 68%
Fewer per residentMore per resident
Size group

Lenawee District Library serves 40,514 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000.

A year at the library

Every hour the doors are open, about 17 items go out

Fiscal year 2024, for the whole Lenawee District Library system. The library’s own count.

50K
visits
1.2 per resident
161K
loans, print + digital
4 per resident
815
programs & events
16K attended
9,415
library cards
23% of people served
Every open hour17items borrowed
Every week308people at a program
Every day13Wi-Fi sessions
11 staff (full-time equivalent)31 public computers
What people borrow

Mostly books and media off the shelf

161K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.

161Kloans
Books & media (adults) 46%Kids’ books & media 29%E-books, audio & streaming 25%
From your couch

39,784 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.

Kids & programs

About 10 kids’ programs a week

Story times, clubs, classes and events, across the whole system, by who they’re for.

Schools in Dover Township →

Programs last year by age group

Ages 0–5377
Ages 6–11147
Teens57
Adults200
All ages34
Little ones
7.3

story times and programs a week for ages 0–5, on average.

47K
kids’ books & media borrowed
16K
people at programs
815
programs
The building

Find it

Clayton Branch Library, 3457 State Street, Clayton.

17
hours open a week
1,000
square feet
With a card

E-books and audiobooks from home. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy. Good at every Lenawee District Library branch.

New in Dover Township? The Handbook →

Hours are the survey’s yearly average. Check the library’s own site for today’s hours.

What your card is worth

For every $1 it spends, the library lends about $2.36 worth

Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Dover Township cardholder borrows.

In a month I’d use…
Books$17 each
1
Kids’ books$12 each
0
E-books & audio$15 each
0
Movies & music$4 each
0
Programs & classes$10 a program
0
Computer & Wi-Fi$3 a session
0
Your card saves you about
$204
a year at retail prices · $17 a month

Who pays for it
$27 per resident a year

Typical for a library this size: $40. Operating budget $1.1M.

Local taxes 90%State 3%Gifts & other 7%

Last year the library lent and hosted about $2.6M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $1.1M 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 9,415 cardholders ÷ 12.

Next door

Libraries next door

Who has a library of their own, and how much each town borrows. Tap a town to see its library.

12+ loans per resident8–124–8Under 4No library / shared system
TownLibraryLoans per residentHoursCivic life
Dover TownshipClayton Branch Library—17B
Madison TownshipNone of its own——B+
Adrian TownshipNone of its own——B+
Seneca TownshipNone of its own——B−
Hudson TownshipNone of its own——B
Rome TownshipNone of its own——B+

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).

How to read these numbers

What this data can and can’t tell you

From the Public Libraries Survey, fiscal year 2024.

  • System-wide. Clayton Branch Library is one branch of Lenawee District Library, so the yearly numbers cover every branch and all 40,514 people it serves.

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 Dover Township

Does Dover Township have a public library?

Yes: Clayton Branch Library, 3457 State Street, is a branch of Lenawee District Library, which serves 40,514 people. The branch is open about 17 hours a week, averaged over the year.

Is Lenawee District 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 Dover Township’s library?

It logged 1.2 visits and lent 4.0 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 2.6 visits for libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people.

What is Dover Township’s civic life grade?

B Dover Township is ahead of 55% 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 Dover Township.

Town Square →
Start a conversation

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.