Fitzwilliam Common Historic District · Photo: User:Magicpiano · CC BY-SA 4.0Fitzwilliam’s library runs 126 programs per 1,000 residents, against a typical 60 for libraries its size
Fitzwilliam Town Library serves Fitzwilliam’s 2,389 residents. Last year it lent 19K books, movies and e-books and logged 13K visits.
What Fitzwilliam’s library is like
More library cards than residents
2,925 cards for 2,389 people. Cards held by people from outside the service area count too, so the total can pass the population. At the typical library serving under 2,500 people, it’s 54%. How it compares ↓
Still charges late fines, unlike its neighbors
Fitzwilliam Town Library charges late fines on some overdue items. All four libraries in neighboring towns have dropped them. What your card is worth ↓
A small-town library
Fitzwilliam Town Library serves 2,389 residents with about 2 full-time staff. 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 ↓
Open only about 20 hours a week
Fitzwilliam Town Library keeps short hours: about 20 a week, averaged over the year, so check its schedule before you go. Jaffrey Public Library in Jaffrey, next door, is open about 44 hours a week. The building ↓
A big collection for the borrowing it gets
Fitzwilliam Town Library holds 24,000 books and other items, but the average item went out about once every two years last year. 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 Fitzwilliam’s civic life grade
On library visits, community nonprofits and volunteering, Fitzwilliam is ahead of 87% of U.S. towns, #17 of 126 in New Hampshire. All three inputs are above most U.S. towns; Fitzwilliam’s count of community nonprofits ranks highest.
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 →
17 community nonprofits are registered in Fitzwilliam
7.5 per 1,000 residents, against a U.S. town median of 3.7. The largest group: human services.
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 (1 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town. 1 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
8.6%
8.6% of Fitzwilliam’s Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 7.9% in the typical New Hampshire 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 Fitzwilliam’s residents live; 2022.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on all 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving under 2,500 people across the U.S.
Fitzwilliam Town Library serves 2,389 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving under 2,500.
Every hour the doors are open, about 18 items go out
Fiscal year 2024. The library’s own count.
Almost half the print loans are kids’ books
19K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
Each of the 24K books and other items on the shelves went out about 0.6 time last year, on average.
5,428 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
About 3 kids’ programs 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 Fitzwilliam last year.
Find it
Fitzwilliam Town Library, 11 Templeton Turnpike, Fitzwilliam.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy.
New in Fitzwilliam? 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 $1.44 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Fitzwilliam cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $54. Operating budget $222K.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $320K worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $222K 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 2,925 cardholders ÷ 12.
Libraries next door
Fitzwilliam ranks 3rd of 5 for borrowing per resident. Tap a town to see its library.
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).
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 Fitzwilliam
Does Fitzwilliam have a public library?
Yes. Fitzwilliam Town Library, 11 Templeton Turnpike, serves Fitzwilliam’s 2,389 residents (the survey’s count) and is open about 20 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Fitzwilliam Town 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 Fitzwilliam’s library?
It logged 5.4 visits and lent 7.8 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3.5 visits for libraries serving under 2,500 people.
What is Fitzwilliam’s civic life grade?
A Fitzwilliam is ahead of 87% of U.S. towns on civic life, #17 of 126 in New Hampshire. 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 Fitzwilliam.
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.