Photo: Farragutful · CC BY-SA 4.0Elbow Lake’s library lends 11 print items per resident, against a typical 3.9 for libraries its size
Elbow Lake: Thorson Mem Library serves Elbow Lake’s 2,068 residents. Last year it lent 26K books, movies and e-books and logged 10K visits.
What Elbow Lake’s library is like
More than half the print loans are for kids
Children’s books and media are 55% of print loans, and kids’ borrowing per resident is higher than at 92% of similar-size libraries. That works out to about 35 items per child in Elbow Lake last year. Kids & programs ↓
A small-town library
Elbow Lake: Thorson Mem Library serves 2,068 residents with about 2 full-time staff, open about 43 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 ↓
Nearly everyone in Elbow Lake has a card
1,931 cards for 2,068 people, or 93%. At the typical library serving under 2,500 people, it’s 54%. How it compares ↓
The library is a National Register landmark
Scofield, Anna J. Memorial Auditorium and Harold E. Thorson Memorial Library has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 2015. Today’s library there has 2,822 square feet. The building ↓
Elbow Lake is a town of borrowers
Elbow Lake: Thorson Mem Library lends 11 print items per resident, against a typical 3.9 for libraries serving under 2,500 people, more than 88% of similar-size libraries. 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; in a town this small, one busy program or a few avid readers move the per-resident numbers.
What’s behind Elbow Lake’s civic life grade
On community nonprofits and volunteering, Elbow Lake is ahead of 84% of U.S. towns. Elbow Lake is graded on two of the three inputs. Elbow Lake’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 →
24 community nonprofits are registered in Elbow Lake
18.5 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 (7 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town.
7.3%
7.3% of Elbow Lake’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 Elbow Lake’s residents live; 2022.
About 1 kids’ program 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 Elbow Lake last year.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 7 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving under 2,500 people across the U.S.
Elbow Lake: Thorson Mem Library serves 2,068 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving under 2,500.
Every hour the doors are open, about 12 items go out
Fiscal year 2024. The library’s own count.
More than half the print loans are kids’ books
26K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
Each of the 32K books and other items on the shelves went out about 0.7 time last year, on average.
3,672 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
A National Register landmark since 2015
Elbow Lake: Thorson Mem Library, 117 Central Avenue, Elbow Lake.
No late fees. E-books and audiobooks from home. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy.
New in Elbow Lake? The Handbook →Hours are the survey’s yearly average. Check the library’s own site for today’s hours.
Scofield, Anna J. Memorial Auditorium and Harold E. Thorson Memorial Library
Scofield, Anna J. Memorial Auditorium and Harold E. Thorson Memorial Library was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 11, 2015. It is significant for its politics at the local level. It was listed as part of Federal Relief Construction in Minnesota, 1933-1943 MPS; Federal Relief Construction in Minnesota, 1933-1943 MPS.
More about the building →For every $1 it spends, the library lends about $2.42 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Elbow Lake cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $54. Operating budget $161K.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $389K worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $161K 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 1,931 cardholders ÷ 12.
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 Elbow Lake
Does Elbow Lake have a public library?
Yes. Elbow Lake: Thorson Mem Library, 117 Central Avenue, serves Elbow Lake’s 2,068 residents (the survey’s count) and is open about 43 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Elbow Lake: Thorson Mem 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 Elbow Lake’s library?
It logged 4.9 visits and lent 12.5 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3.5 visits for libraries serving under 2,500 people.
What is Elbow Lake’s civic life grade?
A− Elbow Lake is ahead of 84% 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 Elbow Lake.
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. Building history: National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places; photo via Wikimedia Commons. “What your card is worth” uses typical retail prices and is an estimate, not an official figure.