Photo: Ira Goldstein · CC BY-SA 3.0Freeport’s library runs 26 programs per 1,000 residents, against a typical 14 for libraries its size
Freeport Memorial Library serves 41,463 people in and around Freeport. Last year it lent 110K books, movies and e-books and logged 112K visits.
What Freeport’s library is like
Still charges late fines, unlike its neighbors
Freeport Memorial Library charges late fines on some overdue items. Two of the three libraries in neighboring towns have dropped them. What your card is worth ↓
A well-funded system
Freeport Memorial Library spends $152 per resident a year, about four times the typical $40 for a library its size. Almost all of it (98%) comes from local taxes. What your card is worth ↓
Open about 66 hours a week
The Freeport branch is open about 66 hours a week, averaged over the year. The building ↓
Programs lean toward adults
55% of the 1,082 programs last year were for adults: classes, talks, clubs and events. 431 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; Freeport Memorial Library serves 41,463 people in and around Freeport, and its numbers cover all of them.
What’s behind Freeport’s civic life grade
On library visits, community nonprofits and volunteering, Freeport is ahead of 12% of U.S. towns, #693 of 751 in New York. All three inputs sit below most U.S. towns; library visits come closest to the middle.
Most U.S. towns with similar household incomes ($90K–$151K) 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 →
113 community nonprofits are registered in Freeport
2.6 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 (66 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town. 12 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
2.9%
2.9% of Freeport’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 Freeport’s residents live; 2022.
What a library card is worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Freeport cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $40. Operating budget $6.3M.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $1.9M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $6.3M 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 12,029 cardholders ÷ 12.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 4 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people across the U.S.
Freeport Memorial Library serves 41,463 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 32 items go out
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole Freeport Memorial Library system. The library’s own count.
Mostly books and media off the shelf
110K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
35,975 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
About 8 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
Freeport Memorial Library, 144 West Merrick Road, Freeport.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Loans renew on their own if no one’s waiting. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy. Good at every Freeport Memorial Library branch.
New in Freeport? The Handbook →Hours are the survey’s yearly average. Check the library’s own site for today’s hours.
Libraries next door
Who has a library of their own, and how much each town borrows. Tap a town to see its library.
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. Freeport Memorial Library serves 41,463 people in and around Freeport, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Freeport.
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 Freeport
Does Freeport have a public library?
Yes. Freeport Memorial Library, 144 West Merrick Road, serves 41,463 people in and around Freeport (the survey’s count) and is open about 66 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Freeport Memorial 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 Freeport’s library?
It logged 2.7 visits and lent 2.7 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 2.6 visits for libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people.
What is Freeport’s civic life grade?
D Freeport is ahead of 12% of U.S. towns on civic life, #693 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 Freeport.
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.