Friendship Free Library · Photo: Doug Kerr from Albany, NY, United States · CC BY-SA 2.0Friendship’s library logs 2.3 visits per resident, against a typical 3.5 for libraries its size
Friendship Free Library serves 2,056 people in and around Friendship. Last year it lent 5,979 books, movies and e-books and logged 4,809 visits.
What Friendship’s library is like
Below typical on every measure
Against libraries serving under 2,500 people, Friendship Free Library sits below the middle on all seven per-resident measures we compare, and in the bottom 30% on three. How it compares ↓
The branch is a National Register landmark
Friendship Free Library has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 2008. Today’s library there has 6,900 square feet. The building ↓
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; Friendship Free Library serves 2,056 people in and around Friendship, and its numbers cover all of them; in a town this small, one busy program or a few avid readers move the per-resident numbers.
What’s behind Friendship’s civic life grade
On community nonprofits and volunteering, Friendship is ahead of 6% of U.S. towns. Friendship is graded on two of the three inputs. Both inputs sit below most U.S. towns; Friendship’s count of community nonprofits comes closest to the middle.
Most U.S. towns with similar household incomes ($45K–$75K) 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 →
4 community nonprofits are registered in Friendship
2.2 per 1,000 residents, against a U.S. town median of 3.7. The largest group: civic groups, clubs & veterans.
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 (1 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town.
4.5%
4.5% of Friendship’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 Friendship’s residents live; 2022.
A National Register landmark since 2008
Friendship Free Library, 44 West Main Street, Friendship.
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 Friendship Free Library branch.
New in Friendship? The Handbook →Hours are the survey’s yearly average. Check the library’s own site for today’s hours.
Friendship Free Library
Friendship Free Library was added to the National Register of Historic Places on Aug 15, 2008. It is significant for its architecture at the local level. Its architecture is described as Classical Revival.
Friendship Free Library, also known as Pitt Memorial Library, is a historic library building located at Friendship in Allegany County, New York. Constructed of yellow brick in 1912, and designed by Otis Dockstader of Elmira, the building is composed of a five-by-two bay, one-story main block, with a large four-by-four bay block to the rear. The building features Arts and Crafts style decorative elements.
More about the building →Below most similar-size libraries on all 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving under 2,500 people across the U.S.
Friendship Free Library serves 2,056 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving under 2,500.
Every hour the doors are open, about 5 items go out
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole Friendship Free Library system. The library’s own count.
Mostly books and media off the shelf
5,979 loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
533 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
66 programs a year
Story times, clubs, classes and events, across the whole system, by who they’re for.
Programs last year by age group
For every $1 it spends, the library lends about $1.17 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Friendship cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $54. Operating budget $104K.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $122K worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $104K 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 552 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.
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. Friendship Free Library serves 2,056 people in and around Friendship, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Friendship.
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 Friendship
Does Friendship have a public library?
Yes. Friendship Free Library, 44 West Main Street, serves 2,056 people in and around Friendship (the survey’s count) and is open about 25 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Friendship 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 Friendship’s library?
It logged 2.3 visits and lent 2.9 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3.5 visits for libraries serving under 2,500 people.
What is Friendship’s civic life grade?
D Friendship is ahead of 6% 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 Friendship.
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. Building history: National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places; photo via Wikimedia Commons. “What your card is worth” uses typical retail prices and is an estimate, not an official figure.