Photo: Soc 59 · CC BY-SA 4.0Middlesex’s library lends 2.7 print items per resident, against a typical 3.9 for libraries its size
Middlesex Public Library serves Middlesex’s 14,636 residents. Last year it lent 50K books, movies and e-books and logged 36K visits.
What Middlesex’s library is like
Still charges late fines, unlike its neighbors
Middlesex Public Library charges late fines on some overdue items. Two of the three libraries in neighboring towns have dropped them. What your card is worth ↓
Few residents carry a card
Only 17% of the people Middlesex Public Library serves have a library card, against a typical 40% for its size. How it compares ↓
A big collection for the borrowing it gets
Middlesex Public Library holds 68,000 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.
What’s behind Middlesex’s civic life grade
On library visits, community nonprofits and volunteering, Middlesex is ahead of 10% of U.S. towns, #397 of 466 in New Jersey. All three inputs sit below most U.S. towns; library visits come closest to the middle.
Middlesex’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 ($79K–$131K) 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 →
29 community nonprofits are registered in Middlesex
2.0 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 (12 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town. 2 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
4.7%
4.7% of Middlesex’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 Middlesex’s residents live; 2022.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 1 of 7 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000 people across the U.S.
Middlesex Public Library serves 14,636 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 20 items go out
Fiscal year 2024. The library’s own count.
Mostly books and media off the shelf
50K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
The survey has no count of children’s loans for Middlesex’s library in 2024, so there’s no split between adults’ and kids’ borrowing.
Each of the 68K books and other items on the shelves went out about 0.6 time last year, on average.
10,998 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
About 2 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.
Find it
Middlesex Public Library, 1300 Mountain Avenue, Middlesex.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Loans renew on their own if no one’s waiting. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy.
New in Middlesex? 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 $1.26 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Middlesex cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $43. Operating budget $706K.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $886K worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $706K 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 2,491 cardholders ÷ 12.
Libraries next door
Middlesex ranks 2nd of 3 for borrowing per resident. Tap a town to see its library.
| Town | Library | Loans per resident | Hours | Civic life |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Piscataway Township | Piscataway Public Library fine-free | 3.6 | 62 | C− |
| Middlesex | Middlesex Public Library | 3.4 | 49 | D |
| Dunellen | Dunellen Free Public Library | 2.8 | 47 | C |
| Bridgewater Township | Bridgewater Branch fine-free | — | 58 | B− |
| Green Brook Township | None of its own | — | — | D |
| Martinsville | None of its own | — | — | — graded as part of its town |
| Bound Brook | None of its own | — | — | C− |
| South Bound Brook | None of its own | — | — | D− |
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. Middlesex 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 Middlesex
Does Middlesex have a public library?
Yes. Middlesex Public Library, 1300 Mountain Avenue, serves Middlesex’s 14,636 residents (the survey’s count) and is open about 49 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Middlesex 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 Middlesex’s library?
It logged 2.5 visits and lent 3.4 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3.1 visits for libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000 people.
What is Middlesex’s civic life grade?
D Middlesex is ahead of 10% of U.S. towns on civic life, #397 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 Middlesex.
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.