Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0Portales’ library lends 2.3 print items per resident, against a typical 3.9 for libraries its size
Portales Public Library serves Portales’s 12,137 residents. Last year it lent 33K books, movies and e-books and logged 42K visits.
What stands out about Portales’s library
Read from the library’s own yearly report. The page puts what stands out first.
What’s behind Portales’ civic life grade
On library visits, community nonprofits and volunteering, Portales is ahead of 25% of U.S. towns, #26 of 46 in New Mexico. Library visits hold the grade up; the share of younger adults in volunteering groups pulls it down.
Portales’ 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 ($38K–$63K) 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 →
42 community nonprofits are registered in Portales
3.5 per 1,000 residents, against a U.S. town median of 3.7. The largest group: youth, sports & recreation.
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 (29 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.
3.8%
3.8% of Portales’ Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 5.2% in the typical New Mexico 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 Portales’ residents live; 2022.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 3 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000 people across the U.S.
Portales Public Library serves 12,137 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 14 items go out
Fiscal year 2024. The library’s own count.
Almost half the print loans are kids’ books
33K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
Each of the 45K books and other items on the shelves went out about 0.6 time last year, on average.
4,761 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 Portales last year.
Find it
Portales Public Library, 218 S. Ave. B, Portales.
No late fees. E-books and audiobooks from home. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy.
New in Portales? 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 $1.28 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Portales cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $43. Operating budget $495K.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $634K worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $495K 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 5,483 cardholders ÷ 12.
What this data can and can’t tell you
From the Public Libraries Survey, fiscal year 2024.
- Visits are a typical-week estimate. Portales 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 Portales
Does Portales have a public library?
Yes. Portales Public Library, 218 S. Ave. B, serves Portales’ 12,137 residents (the survey’s count) and is open about 46 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Portales 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 Portales’ library?
It logged 3.4 visits and lent 2.7 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3.1 visits for libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000 people.
What is Portales’ civic life grade?
C− Portales is ahead of 25% of U.S. towns on civic life, #26 of 46 in New Mexico. 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 Portales.
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.