Photo: Keith Snyder · CC BY-SA 4.0Norborne’s library logs 1.3 visits per resident, against a typical 3.5 for libraries its size
Norborne Public Library serves Norborne’s 634 residents. Last year it lent 1,013 books, movies and e-books and logged 809 visits.
What Norborne’s library is like
Norborne Public Library is used less than most libraries its size
Norborne Public Library records 1.3 visits per resident, against a typical 3.5 for libraries serving under 2,500 people. Borrowing is 1.6 print items per resident, against a typical 3.9. It also spends less than most: $21 per resident, against a typical $54. How it compares ↓
A small-town library
Norborne Public Library serves 634 residents with about one full-time staff, open about 40 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 ↓
Few residents carry a card
Only 7% of the people Norborne Public Library serves have a library card, against a typical 54% for its size. How it compares ↓
Runs on less money than most
Norborne Public Library spends $21 per resident, less than 90% of similar-size libraries (typical: $54). 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 Norborne’s civic life grade
Norborne isn’t graded on civic life: TownRatings grades towns of 1,000 residents or more.
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 →
Below most similar-size libraries on all 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving under 2,500 people across the U.S.
Norborne Public Library serves 634 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving under 2,500.
A year at Norborne Public Library
Fiscal year 2024. The library’s own count.
Mostly books and media off the shelf
1,013 loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
Each of the 13K books and other items on the shelves went out about 0.1 time last year, on average.
18 programs a year
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 Norborne last year.
Find it
Norborne Public Library, 109 E Second St., Norborne.
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 $1.35 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Norborne cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $54. Operating budget $13K.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $18K worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $13K 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 46 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. Norborne 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 Norborne
Does Norborne have a public library?
Yes. Norborne Public Library, 109 E Second St., serves Norborne’s 634 residents (the survey’s count) and is open about 40 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Norborne Public Library fine-free?
It charges late fines on some overdue items (the library’s 2024 survey report).
How busy is Norborne’s library?
It logged 1.3 visits and lent 1.6 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3.5 visits for libraries serving under 2,500 people.
What is Norborne’s civic life grade?
Norborne isn’t graded on civic life: TownRatings grades towns of 1,000 residents or more. How it works.
Book talk
Reading, story times and the library in Norborne.
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.