Route 29 Stone Arch Bridge · Photo: Allan Green · CC BY-SA 4.0Fairfield’s library runs 145 programs per 1,000 residents, against a typical 60 for libraries its size
Middleville Free Library serves 407 people in and around Fairfield. Last year it lent 1,612 books, movies and e-books and logged 661 visits.
What Fairfield’s library is like
Open only about 12 hours a week
Middleville Free Library keeps short hours: about 12 a week, averaged over the year, so check its schedule before you go. Frank J. Basloe Public Library in Herkimer, next door, is open about 51 hours a week. The building ↓
Well funded, but lightly used
Middleville Free Library spends $102 per resident, more than 83% of similar-size libraries. Use doesn’t match: visits per resident are lower than at 82% of them. What your card is worth ↓
A small-town library
Middleville Free Library serves 407 residents with about one full-time staff. It’s compared only with libraries serving under 2,500 people, because per-person numbers always look big in a small town. A year at the library ↓
Nearly everyone in Fairfield has a card
351 cards for 407 people, or 86%. At the typical library serving under 2,500 people, it’s 54%. How it compares ↓
Programs lean toward adults
64% of the 59 programs last year were for adults: classes, talks, clubs and events. 14 were for children. 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; in a town this small, one busy program or a few avid readers move the per-resident numbers.
What’s behind Fairfield’s civic life grade
On community nonprofits and volunteering, Fairfield is ahead of 58% of U.S. towns. Fairfield is graded on two of the three inputs. The share of younger adults in volunteering groups holds the grade up; Fairfield’s count of community nonprofits 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 →
6 community nonprofits are registered in Fairfield
3.2 per 1,000 residents, against a U.S. town median of 3.7. The largest group: arts & culture.
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 (0 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town.
9.3%
9.3% of Fairfield’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 Fairfield’s residents live; 2022.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 4 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving under 2,500 people across the U.S.
Middleville Free Library serves 407 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving under 2,500.
Every hour the doors are open, about 3 items go out
Fiscal year 2024. The library’s own count.
Mostly books and media off the shelf
1,612 loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
Each of the 11K books and other items on the shelves went out about 0.1 time last year, on average.
621 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
59 programs a year
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
Middleville Free Library, 1 South Main Street, Middleville.
No late fees. E-books and audiobooks from home. Loans renew on their own if no one’s waiting. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy.
New in Fairfield? 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 Fairfield cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $54. Operating budget $42K.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $27K worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $42K 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 351 cardholders ÷ 12.
Libraries next door
Fairfield ranks 2nd of 3 for borrowing per resident. Tap a town to see its library.
| Town | Library | Loans per resident | Hours | Civic life |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newport | Newport Free Library fine-free | 10.1 | 25 | B+ |
| Fairfield | Middleville Free Library fine-free | 4.0 | 12 | B |
| Salisbury | Kirby Free Library of Salisbury fine-free | 0.9 | 20 | C |
| Herkimer | Frank J. Basloe Public Library | — | 51 | C+ |
| Manheim | Dolgeville-Manheim Public Library | — | 33 | B |
| Norway | None of its own | — | — | — under 1,000 residents |
| Little Falls | None of its own | — | — | C |
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 Fairfield
Does Fairfield have a public library?
Yes. Middleville Free Library, 1 South Main Street, serves 407 people in and around Fairfield (the survey’s count) and is open about 12 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Middleville Free 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 Fairfield’s library?
It logged 1.6 visits and lent 4.0 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3.5 visits for libraries serving under 2,500 people.
What is Fairfield’s civic life grade?
B Fairfield is ahead of 58% of U.S. towns on civic life. 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 Fairfield.
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.