South Peterboro Street Commercial Historic District · Photo: Doug Kerr from Upstate New York · CC BY-SA 2.0Lenox’s library runs 75 programs per 1,000 residents, against a typical 34 for libraries its size
Canastota Public Library serves 9,457 people in and around Lenox. Last year it lent 47K books, movies and e-books and logged 29K visits.
The short version on Lenox’s library
The branch is a National Register landmark
Canastota Public Library has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1986. Today’s library there has 9,000 square feet. The building ↓
Programs lean toward adults
77% of the 711 programs last year were for adults: classes, talks, clubs and events. 112 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; Canastota Public Library serves 9,457 people in and around Lenox, and its numbers cover all of them.
What’s behind Lenox’s civic life grade
On library visits, community nonprofits and volunteering, Lenox is ahead of 53% of U.S. towns, #346 of 751 in New York. Lenox’s count of community nonprofits holds the grade up; library visits pull 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 →
39 community nonprofits are registered in Lenox
4.5 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 (6 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town. 1 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
7.5%
7.5% of Lenox’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 Lenox’s residents live; 2022.
A National Register landmark since 1986
Canastota Public Library, 102 West Center Street, Canastota.
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 Canastota Public Library branch.
New in Lenox? The Handbook →Hours are the survey’s yearly average. Check the library’s own site for today’s hours.
Canastota Public Library
Canastota Public Library was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 23, 1986. It is significant for its architecture at the local level. Its architecture is described as Classical Revival. It was listed as part of Canastota Village MRA.
Canastota Public Library is a historic Carnegie library building located at Canastota in Madison County, New York. It was designed and built in 1902, with funds provided by the philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. It is one of 2,509 such libraries constructed between 1885 and 1919, and one of 107 in New York State. Carnegie provided $10,000 toward the construction of the Canastota library.
More about the building →Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 5 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000 people across the U.S.
Canastota Public Library serves 9,457 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 16 items go out
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole Canastota Public Library system. The library’s own count.
Mostly books and media off the shelf
47K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
11,622 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
About 2 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.
For every $1 it spends, the library lends about $2.06 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Lenox cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $43. Operating budget $370K.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $761K worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $370K 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 5,252 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.
- Visits are a typical-week estimate. Canastota Public Library counted one typical week and multiplied by 52, as the survey allows.
- System-wide. Canastota Public Library serves 9,457 people in and around Lenox, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Lenox.
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 Lenox
Does Lenox have a public library?
Yes. Canastota Public Library, 102 West Center Street, serves 9,457 people in and around Lenox (the survey’s count) and is open about 55 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Canastota Public 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 Lenox’s library?
It logged 3.1 visits and lent 4.9 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3 visits for libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000 people.
What is Lenox’s civic life grade?
B− Lenox is ahead of 53% of U.S. towns on civic life, #346 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 Lenox.
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.