Photo: Andrew Filer · CC BY-SA 2.0Beach’s library lends 6.3 print items per resident, against a typical 3.9 for libraries its size
Golden Valley County Library serves 1,736 people in and around Beach. Last year it lent 13K books, movies and e-books and logged 9,070 visits.
What stands out about Golden Valley County Library
Read from the library’s own yearly report. The page puts what stands out first.
What’s behind Beach’s civic life grade
Beach 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 →
34 programs a year
Story times, clubs, classes and events, across the whole system, by who they’re for.
Programs last year by age group
story times and programs a week for ages 0–5, on average.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 5 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving under 2,500 people across the U.S.
Golden Valley County Library serves 1,736 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving under 2,500.
Every hour the doors are open, about 10 items go out
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole Golden Valley County Library system. The library’s own count.
More than half the print loans are kids’ books
13K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
2,451 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
Find it
Golden Valley County Library, 54 Central Avenue, Beach.
No late fees. E-books and audiobooks from home. Loans renew on their own if no one’s waiting. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy. Good at every Golden Valley County Library branch.
New in Beach? 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 $2.90 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Beach cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $54. Operating budget $87K.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $252K worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $87K 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 596 cardholders ÷ 12.
What this data can and can’t tell you
From the Public Libraries Survey, fiscal year 2024.
- System-wide. Golden Valley County Library serves 1,736 people in and around Beach, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Beach.
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 Beach
Does Beach have a public library?
Yes. Golden Valley County Library, 54 Central Avenue, serves 1,736 people in and around Beach (the survey’s count) and is open about 25 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Golden Valley County 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 Beach’s library?
It logged 5.2 visits and lent 7.7 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3.5 visits for libraries serving under 2,500 people.
What is Beach’s civic life grade?
Beach 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 Beach.
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.