Photo: Bjoertvedt · CC BY-SA 3.0Aurora’s library lends 9.7 print items per resident, against a typical 3.9 for libraries its size
Aurora Public Library serves Aurora’s 1,660 residents. Last year it lent 18K books, movies and e-books and logged 11K visits.
What Aurora’s library is like
A small-town library
Aurora Public Library serves 1,660 residents with about 2 full-time staff, open about 37 hours a week. It’s compared only with libraries serving under 2,500 people, because per-person numbers always look big in a small town. A year at the library ↓
Aurora invests in its library
Aurora Public Library spends $112 per resident a year, about twice the typical $54 for a library its size. Almost all of it (96%) comes from local taxes. What your card is worth ↓
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; in a town this small, one busy program or a few avid readers move the per-resident numbers.
What’s behind Aurora’s civic life grade
On library visits, community nonprofits and volunteering, Aurora is ahead of 79% of U.S. towns. Aurora’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 →
19 community nonprofits are registered in Aurora
10.6 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 (6 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town.
6.1%
6.1% of Aurora’s Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 7.4% in the typical Minnesota 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 Aurora’s residents live; 2022.
Mostly books and media off the shelf
18K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
Each of the 20K books and other items on the shelves went out about 0.8 time last year, on average.
1,498 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 4 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving under 2,500 people across the U.S.
Aurora Public Library serves 1,660 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving under 2,500.
Every hour the doors are open, about 9 items go out
Fiscal year 2024. The library’s own count.
50 programs a year
Story times, clubs, classes and events, by who they’re for.
Programs last year by age group
children’s books and media borrowed per child under 18 in Aurora last year.
Find it
Aurora Public Library, 14 West Second Avenue No, Aurora.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy.
New in Aurora? 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 $1.51 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Aurora cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $54. Operating budget $186K.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $280K worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $186K 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 818 cardholders ÷ 12.
What this data can and can’t tell you
From the Public Libraries Survey, fiscal year 2024.
- Visits are a typical-week estimate. Aurora Public 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 Aurora
Does Aurora have a public library?
Yes. Aurora Public Library, 14 West Second Avenue No, serves Aurora’s 1,660 residents (the survey’s count) and is open about 37 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Aurora 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 Aurora’s library?
It logged 6.6 visits and lent 10.6 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3.5 visits for libraries serving under 2,500 people.
What is Aurora’s civic life grade?
A− Aurora is ahead of 79% 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 Aurora.
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.