Photo: Daniel Case · CC BY-SA 4.0Cornwall’s library lends 5.4 print items per resident, against a typical 3.9 for libraries its size
Cornwall Public Library serves 17,395 people in and around Cornwall. Last year it lent 143K books, movies and e-books and logged 60K visits.
What stands out about Cornwall Public Library
Read from the library’s own yearly report. The page puts what stands out first.
What’s behind Cornwall’s civic life grade
On community nonprofits and volunteering, Cornwall is ahead of 86% of U.S. towns, #92 of 751 in New York. Cornwall is graded on two of the three inputs. Both inputs are above most U.S. towns; the share of younger adults in volunteering groups ranks highest.
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 →
60 community nonprofits are registered in Cornwall
4.7 per 1,000 residents, against a U.S. town median of 3.7. The largest group: environment & animals.
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 (10 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town.
10.9%
10.9% of Cornwall’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 Cornwall’s residents live; 2022.
More than half the print loans are kids’ books
143K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
49,457 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 7 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000 people across the U.S.
Cornwall Public Library serves 17,395 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 58 items go out
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole Cornwall Public Library system. The library’s own count.
About 3 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.
Find it
Cornwall Public Library, 395 Hudson Street, Cornwall.
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 Cornwall Public Library branch.
New in Cornwall? 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 $1.81 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Cornwall cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $43. Operating budget $1.2M.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $2.2M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $1.2M 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 7,172 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Highlands | Highland Falls Library | 9.2 | 42 | B |
| Philipstown | Alice Curtis Desmond and Hamilton Fish Library fine-free | 5.1 | 52 | A+ |
| Woodbury | Woodbury Public Library fine-free | 3.7 | 51 | C |
| Woodbury | Woodbury Public Library fine-free | 3.7 | 51 | — graded with its twin city |
| Cornwall | Cornwall Public Library fine-free | — | 47 | A |
| Blooming Grove | Moffat Library of Washingtonville fine-free | — | 60 | C+ |
| Fishkill | Blodgett Memorial Library District of Fishkill fine-free | — | 40 | C+ |
| Firthcliffe | Cornwall Public Library fine-free | — | 47 | — graded as part of its town |
| New Windsor | None of its own | — | — | C |
| Vails Gate | None of its own | — | — | — graded as part of its town |
| West Point | 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.
- System-wide. Cornwall Public Library serves 17,395 people in and around Cornwall, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Cornwall.
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 Cornwall
Does Cornwall have a public library?
Yes. Cornwall Public Library, 395 Hudson Street, serves 17,395 people in and around Cornwall (the survey’s count) and is open about 47 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Cornwall 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 Cornwall’s library?
It logged 3.4 visits and lent 8.2 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3.1 visits for libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000 people.
What is Cornwall’s civic life grade?
A Cornwall is ahead of 86% of U.S. towns on civic life, #92 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 Cornwall.
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.