Interstate Hosiery Mills, Inc. Mill Building · Photo: Desmond57 · CC BY-SA 3.0Bloomfield Township’s library lends 2.5 print items per resident, against a typical 3.7 for libraries its size
Bloomfield Public Library serves Bloomfield Township’s 53,105 residents. Last year it lent 186K books, movies and e-books and logged 150K visits.
What stands out about Bloomfield Township’s library
Read from the library’s own yearly report. The page puts what stands out first.
What’s behind Bloomfield Township’s civic life grade
On library visits, community nonprofits and volunteering, Bloomfield Township is ahead of 21% of U.S. towns, #340 of 466 in New Jersey. All three inputs sit below most U.S. towns; library visits come closest to the middle.
Bloomfield Township’s 2024 visits are an estimate from one typical week (the survey’s method for libraries that don’t count every visit).
Most U.S. towns with similar household incomes ($78K–$130K) score higher, so income alone doesn’t account for it.
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 →
154 community nonprofits are registered in Bloomfield Township
2.9 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 (34 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town. 14 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
5.6%
5.6% of Bloomfield Township’s Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 7.2% in the typical New Jersey 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 Bloomfield Township’s residents live; 2022.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 3 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people across the U.S.
Bloomfield Public Library serves 53,105 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 33 items go out
Fiscal year 2024. The library’s own count.
More than half the print loans are kids’ books
186K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
Each of the 114K books and other items on the shelves went out about 1.2 time last year, on average.
50,909 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
About 7 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 Bloomfield Township last year.
Find it
Bloomfield Public Library, 90 Broad Street, Bloomfield.
No late fees. E-books and audiobooks from home. Loans renew on their own if no one’s waiting. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy.
New in Bloomfield Township? 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 $1.29 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Bloomfield Township cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $40. Operating budget $2.2M.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $2.8M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $2.2M 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 21,227 cardholders ÷ 12.
Libraries next door
Bloomfield Township ranks 3rd of 6 for borrowing per resident. Tap a town to see its library.
| Town | Library | Loans per resident | Hours | Civic life |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glen Ridge | Glen Ridge Free Public Library fine-free | 14.6 | 56 | A |
| Nutley Township | Nutley Free Public Library | 7.1 | 60 | C |
| Bloomfield Township | Bloomfield Public Library fine-free | 3.5 | — | C− |
| Belleville Township | Belleville Free Public Library fine-free | 0.9 | 52 | D− |
| East Orange | East Orange Public Library | 0.6 | 60 | D |
| Newark | Newark Public Library fine-free | 0.4 | 58 | D− |
| Brookdale | None of its own | — | — | — graded as part of its town |
| Watsessing | None of its own | — | — | — graded as part of its town |
| Ampere North | None of its own | — | — | — graded as part of its town |
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. Bloomfield 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 Bloomfield Township
Does Bloomfield Township have a public library?
Yes. Bloomfield Public Library, 90 Broad Street, serves Bloomfield Township’s 53,105 residents (the survey’s count).
Is Bloomfield Public 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 Bloomfield Township’s library?
It logged 2.8 visits and lent 3.5 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 2.6 visits for libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people.
What is Bloomfield Township’s civic life grade?
C− Bloomfield Township is ahead of 21% of U.S. towns on civic life, #340 of 466 in New Jersey. 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 Bloomfield Township.
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.