Garden City’s library logs 5.4 visits per resident, against a typical 3.1 for libraries its size
Garden City Public Library serves Garden City’s 23,272 residents. Last year it lent 215K books, movies and e-books and logged 125K visits.
What Garden City’s library is like
Big on e-books and audiobooks
Digital borrowing runs 3.6 e-items per resident, against a typical 1.1, higher than at 92% of similar-size libraries. It’s 39% of all loans. What people borrow ↓
Garden City invests in its library
Garden City Public Library spends $144 per resident a year, about three times the typical $43 for a library its size. Almost all of it (97%) comes from local taxes. What your card is worth ↓
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.
What’s behind Garden City’s civic life grade
On library visits, community nonprofits and volunteering, Garden City is ahead of 72% of U.S. towns, #196 of 751 in New York. Garden City’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 →
172 community nonprofits are registered in Garden City
7.5 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 (15 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town. 8 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
6.2%
6.2% of Garden City’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 Garden City’s residents live; 2022.
Almost half the print loans are kids’ books
215K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
Each of the 99K books and other items on the shelves went out about 1.3 time last year, on average.
83,852 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 6 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000 people across the U.S.
Garden City Public Library serves 23,272 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 67 items go out
Fiscal year 2024. The library’s own count.
About 4 kids’ programs a week
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.
children’s books and media borrowed per child under 18 in Garden City last year.
Find it
Garden City Public Library, 60 Seventh Street, Garden City.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy.
New in Garden City? 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 Garden City cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $43. Operating budget $3.4M.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $3.3M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $3.4M 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 12,759 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Garden City | Garden City Public Library | 9.2 | 62 | B+ |
| Hempstead | Hempstead Public Library | 0.8 | 57 | D |
| Uniondale | Uniondale Public Library | — | 60 | — graded as part of its town |
| New Hyde Park | Hillside Public Library of New Hyde Park | — | 54 | D |
| North New Hyde Park | Great Neck Library - Parkville Branch fine-free | — | 23 | — graded as part of its town |
| North Hempstead | Westbury Memorial Public Library | — | 71 | B− |
| Hempstead | Hewlett-Woodmere Public Library | — | 69 | C− |
| West Hempstead | West Hempstead Public Library | — | 66 | — graded as part of its town |
| Garden City South | None of its own | — | — | — graded as part of its town |
| Stewart Manor | None of its own | — | — | B |
| Garden City Park | 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.
- Visits are a typical-week estimate. Garden City Public Library counted one typical week and multiplied by 52, as the survey allows.
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 Garden City
Does Garden City have a public library?
Yes. Garden City Public Library, 60 Seventh Street, serves Garden City’s 23,272 residents (the survey’s count) and is open about 62 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Garden City Public 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 Garden City’s library?
It logged 5.4 visits and lent 9.2 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3.1 visits for libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000 people.
What is Garden City’s civic life grade?
B+ Garden City is ahead of 72% of U.S. towns on civic life, #196 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 Garden City.
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.