Photo: Luke Gordon from Greenwood Lake, NY, USA · CC BY 2.0Greenwood Lake’s library logs 8.8 visits per resident, against a typical 3 for libraries its size
Greenwood Lake Public Library serves 5,920 people in and around Greenwood Lake. Last year it lent 36K books, movies and e-books and logged 52K visits.
What Greenwood Lake’s library is like
Visits are the system’s strong suit
Greenwood Lake Public Library logs 8.8 visits per resident, against a typical 3 for libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000 people, more than 92% of similar-size libraries. Borrowing is above typical too, at 4.4 print items per resident. How it compares ↓
A well-funded system
Greenwood Lake Public Library spends $128 per resident a year, about three times the typical $43 for a library its size. 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; Greenwood Lake Public Library serves 5,920 people in and around Greenwood Lake, and its numbers cover all of them.
What’s behind Greenwood Lake’s civic life grade
On community nonprofits and volunteering, Greenwood Lake is ahead of 93% of U.S. towns, #49 of 751 in New York. Greenwood Lake 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 →
15 community nonprofits are registered in Greenwood Lake
5.1 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 (1 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town.
14.7%
14.7% of Greenwood Lake’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 Greenwood Lake’s residents live; 2022.
Every hour the doors are open, about 11 items go out
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole Greenwood Lake Public Library system. The library’s own count.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on all 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000 people across the U.S.
Greenwood Lake Public Library serves 5,920 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000.
Mostly books and media off the shelf
36K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
9,740 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
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
Greenwood Lake Public Library, 79 Waterstone Road, Greenwood Lake.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Loans renew on their own if no one’s waiting. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy. Good at every Greenwood Lake Public Library branch.
New in Greenwood Lake? 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 $3.31 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Greenwood Lake cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $43. Operating budget $761K.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $2.5M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $761K 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 2,788 cardholders ÷ 12.
What this data can and can’t tell you
From the Public Libraries Survey, fiscal year 2024.
- System-wide. Greenwood Lake Public Library serves 5,920 people in and around Greenwood Lake, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Greenwood Lake.
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 Greenwood Lake
Does Greenwood Lake have a public library?
Yes. Greenwood Lake Public Library, 79 Waterstone Road, serves 5,920 people in and around Greenwood Lake (the survey’s count) and is open about 61 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Greenwood Lake 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 Greenwood Lake’s library?
It logged 8.8 visits and lent 6.1 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3 visits for libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000 people.
What is Greenwood Lake’s civic life grade?
A Greenwood Lake is ahead of 93% of U.S. towns on civic life, #49 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 Greenwood Lake.
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.