Grace Episcopal Church · Photo: Zeete · CC BY-SA 4.0Plainfield’s library lends 0.5 print items per resident, against a typical 3.7 for libraries its size
Plainfield Free Public Library serves Plainfield’s 54,586 residents. Last year it lent 42K books, movies and e-books and logged 122K visits.
What Plainfield’s library is like
Below typical on every measure
Against libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people, Plainfield Free Public Library sits below the middle on all seven per-resident measures we compare, and in the bottom 30% on four. How it compares ↓
Still charges late fines, unlike its neighbors
Plainfield Free Public Library charges late fines on some overdue items. Three of the four libraries in neighboring towns have dropped them. What your card is worth ↓
Few residents carry a card
Only 12% of the people Plainfield Free Public Library serves have a library card, against a typical 39% for its size. How it compares ↓
Federal money pays a real share
27% of the budget comes from federal grants, and 60% from local taxes. Nationally, most library money is local. 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 Plainfield’s civic life grade
On library visits, community nonprofits and volunteering, Plainfield is ahead of 11% of U.S. towns, #393 of 466 in New Jersey. All three inputs sit below most U.S. towns; Plainfield’s count of community nonprofits comes closest to the middle.
Most U.S. towns with similar household incomes ($64K–$107K) 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 →
161 community nonprofits are registered in Plainfield
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 (98 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town. 11 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
2.2%
2.2% of Plainfield’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 Plainfield’s residents live; 2022.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 1 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people across the U.S.
Plainfield Free Public Library serves 54,586 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 13 items go out
Fiscal year 2024. The library’s own count.
More than half the print loans are kids’ books
42K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
Each of the 91K books and other items on the shelves went out about 0.3 time last year, on average.
12,993 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
About 4 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 Plainfield last year.
Find it
Plainfield Free Pub. Lib., 800 Park Avenue, Plainfield.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Loans renew on their own if no one’s waiting. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy.
New in Plainfield? The Handbook →Hours are the survey’s yearly average. Check the library’s own site for today’s hours.
What a library card is worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Plainfield cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $40. Operating budget $2.9M.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $1.1M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $2.9M 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 6,630 cardholders ÷ 12.
Libraries next door
Plainfield ranks 3rd of 3 for borrowing per resident. Tap a town to see its library.
| Town | Library | Loans per resident | Hours | Civic life |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scotch Plains Township | Scotch Plains Public Library fine-free | 8.4 | 57 | B |
| Dunellen | Dunellen Free Public Library | 2.8 | 47 | C |
| Plainfield | Plainfield Free Pub. Lib. | 0.8 | 60 | D |
| North Plainfield | North Plainfield Branch Library fine-free | — | 54 | D− |
| Watchung | Watchung Branch Library fine-free | — | 40 | B− |
| Green Brook Township | 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.
- 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 Plainfield
Does Plainfield have a public library?
Yes. Plainfield Free Public Library, 800 Park Avenue, serves Plainfield’s 54,586 residents (the survey’s count) and is open about 60 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Plainfield Free 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 Plainfield’s library?
It logged 2.2 visits and lent 0.8 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 2.6 visits for libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people.
What is Plainfield’s civic life grade?
D Plainfield is ahead of 11% of U.S. towns on civic life, #393 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 Plainfield.
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.