Photo: Pete716 · CC BY-SA 4.0Corning’s library runs 39 programs per 1,000 residents, against a typical 14 for libraries its size
Southeast Steuben County Library serves 33,335 people in and around Corning. Last year it lent 200K books, movies and e-books and logged 155K visits.
What Corning’s library is like
Gifts and endowments pay a real share
37% of the system’s income comes from gifts, endowments, fees and other sources, not taxes. Local taxes cover 63%. What your card is worth ↓
Three times the programs of a typical library its size
Southeast Steuben County Library ran 1,286 programs last year, about 25 a week. That’s 39 per 1,000 residents, against a typical 14. People show up: 27,000 attended. Kids & programs ↓
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; Southeast Steuben County Library serves 33,335 people in and around Corning, and its numbers cover all of them.
What’s behind Corning’s civic life grade
On community nonprofits and volunteering, Corning is ahead of 71% of U.S. towns, #211 of 751 in New York. Corning is graded on two of the three inputs. Corning’s count of community nonprofits holds the grade up; the share of younger adults in volunteering groups pulls it down.
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 →
101 community nonprofits are registered in Corning
9.5 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 (16 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town. 4 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
6.4%
6.4% of Corning’s Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 7.4% in the typical New York 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 Corning’s residents live; 2022.
About 13 kids’ programs a week
Story times, clubs, classes and events, across the whole system, by who they’re for.
Programs last year by age group
story times and programs a week for ages 0–5, on average.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on all 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people across the U.S.
Southeast Steuben County Library serves 33,335 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 72 items go out
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole Southeast Steuben County Library system. The library’s own count.
More than half the print loans are kids’ books
200K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
67,405 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
Find it
Southeast Steuben County Library, 300 Civic Center Plaza Suite 101, Corning.
No late fees. E-books and audiobooks from home. Loans renew on their own if no one’s waiting. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy. Good at every Southeast Steuben County Library branch.
New in Corning? 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 $2.29 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Corning cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $40. Operating budget $1.5M.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $3.4M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $1.5M 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 15,796 cardholders ÷ 12.
Libraries next door
Who has a library of their own, and how much each town borrows. Tap a town to see its library.
| Town | Library | Loans per resident | Hours | Civic life |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Corning | Southeast Steuben County Library fine-free | — | 54 | B+ |
| Riverside | None of its own | — | — | — under 1,000 residents |
| South Corning | 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.
- System-wide. Southeast Steuben County Library serves 33,335 people in and around Corning, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Corning.
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 Corning
Does Corning have a public library?
Yes. Southeast Steuben County Library, 300 Civic Center Plaza Suite 101, serves 33,335 people in and around Corning (the survey’s count) and is open about 54 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Southeast Steuben County 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 Corning’s library?
It logged 4.7 visits and lent 6.0 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 2.6 visits for libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people.
What is Corning’s civic life grade?
B+ Corning is ahead of 71% of U.S. towns on civic life, #211 of 751 in New York. 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 Corning.
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.