Photo: Jon Platek · CC BY-SA 3.0Keene’s library lends 6 print items per resident, against a typical 3.9 for libraries its size
Keene Public Library serves Keene’s 22,535 residents. Last year it lent 204K books, movies and e-books and logged 96K visits.
The short version on Keene’s library
Keene out-borrows every town next door
At 9 loans per resident, Keene leads the six towns here. The closest is Gilsum, at 4.2. Libraries next door ↓
Still charges late fines, unlike its neighbors
Keene Public Library charges late fines on some overdue items. Five of the six libraries in neighboring towns have dropped them. What your card is worth ↓
Big on e-books and audiobooks
Digital borrowing runs 3.1 e-items per resident, against a typical 1.1, higher than at 89% of similar-size libraries. It’s 34% of all loans. What people borrow ↓
Keene invests in its library
Keene Public Library spends $112 per resident a year, about twice the typical $43 for a library its size. All of it 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.
What’s behind Keene’s civic life grade
On library visits, community nonprofits and volunteering, Keene is ahead of 89% of U.S. towns, #12 of 126 in New Hampshire. All three inputs are above most U.S. towns; Keene’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 →
186 community nonprofits are registered in Keene
8.1 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 (25 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town. 3 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
10.4%
10.4% of Keene’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 Keene’s residents live; 2022.
Mostly books and media off the shelf
204K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
Each of the 125K books and other items on the shelves went out about 1.1 time last year, on average.
69,218 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 all 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000 people across the U.S.
Keene Public Library serves 22,535 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 78 items go out
Fiscal year 2024. The library’s own count.
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 Keene last year.
Find it
Keene Public Library, 60 Winter Street, Keene.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Loans renew on their own if no one’s waiting. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy.
New in Keene? 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 $1.27 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Keene cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $43. Operating budget $2.5M.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $3.2M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $2.5M 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 13,905 cardholders ÷ 12.
Libraries next door
Keene borrows the most per resident of the 6 towns here. Tap a town to see its library.
| Town | Library | Loans per resident | Hours | Civic life |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keene | Keene Public Library | 9.0 | 50 | A |
| Gilsum | Gilsum Public Library fine-free | 4.2 | 12 | — under 1,000 residents |
| Marlborough | Frost Free Library fine-free | 4.1 | 27 | A− |
| Westmoreland | Westmoreland Public Library fine-free | 3.5 | 20 | A |
| Sullivan | Sullivan Public Library fine-free | 3.0 | 15 | — under 1,000 residents |
| Swanzey | Mt. Caesar Union Library fine-free | 1.6 | 30 | C |
| Surry | Reed Free Library | — | — | — graded with its twin city |
| Roxbury | None of its own | — | — | — under 1,000 residents |
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.
- Visits are a typical-week estimate. Keene 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 Keene
Does Keene have a public library?
Yes. Keene Public Library, 60 Winter Street, serves Keene’s 22,535 residents (the survey’s count) and is open about 50 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Keene 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 Keene’s library?
It logged 4.2 visits and lent 9.0 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3.1 visits for libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000 people.
What is Keene’s civic life grade?
A Keene is ahead of 89% of U.S. towns on civic life, #12 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 Keene.
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.