Rogues Harbor Inn · Photo: Jerrye & Roy Klotz, MD · CC BY-SA 4.0Lansing’s library lends 6.8 print items per resident, against a typical 3.8 for libraries its size
Lansing Community Library serves 7,882 people in and around Lansing. Last year it lent 59K books, movies and e-books and logged 21K visits.
What stands out about Lansing Community Library
Read from the library’s own yearly report. The page puts what stands out first.
What’s behind Lansing’s civic life grade
On community nonprofits and volunteering, Lansing is ahead of 93% of U.S. towns, #46 of 751 in New York. Lansing 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 →
56 community nonprofits are registered in Lansing
4.8 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 (9 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town. 2 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
22.4%
22.4% of Lansing’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 Lansing’s residents live; 2022.
About 1 kids’ program 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.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 2 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000 people across the U.S.
Lansing Community Library serves 7,882 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 26 items go out
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole Lansing Community Library system. The library’s own count.
More than half the print loans are kids’ books
59K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
5,628 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
Find it
Lansing Community Library, 27 Auburn Rd, Lansing.
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 Lansing Community Library branch.
New in Lansing? 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 $2.67 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Lansing cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $43. Operating budget $330K.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $879K worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $330K 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 2,262 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dryden | The Southworth Library Association fine-free | 47.9 | 42 | A |
| Ulysses | Ulysses Philomathic Library fine-free | 14.0 | 43 | A+ |
| Covert | Interlaken Public Library fine-free | 13.0 | 27 | A+ |
| Lansing | Lansing Community Library fine-free | — | 45 | A |
| Groton | Groton Public Library fine-free | — | 42 | B |
| Genoa | None of its own | — | — | A |
| Ithaca | None of its own | — | — | A+ |
| Locke | None of its own | — | — | B− |
| Cayuga Heights | None of its own | — | — | A+ |
| Northeast Ithaca | 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.
- System-wide. Lansing Community Library serves 7,882 people in and around Lansing, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Lansing.
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 Lansing
Does Lansing have a public library?
Yes. Lansing Community Library, 27 Auburn Rd, serves 7,882 people in and around Lansing (the survey’s count) and is open about 45 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Lansing Community 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 Lansing’s library?
It logged 2.7 visits and lent 7.5 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3 visits for libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000 people.
What is Lansing’s civic life grade?
A Lansing is ahead of 93% of U.S. towns on civic life, #46 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 Lansing.
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.