Photo: Daniel Case · CC BY-SA 3.0Pleasant Valley’s library logs 7.7 visits per resident, against a typical 3 for libraries its size
Pleasant Valley Free Library serves Pleasant Valley’s 9,799 residents. Last year it lent 102K books, movies and e-books and logged 76K visits.
What Pleasant Valley’s library is like
Pleasant Valley uses its library more than almost any town its size
Pleasant Valley Free Library logs 7.7 visits per resident, against a typical 3 for libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000 people, and lends 8.5 print items per resident against a typical 3.8. On both counts it beats 87% of similar-size libraries across the U.S. How it compares ↓
Top 10% in New York for library use
Pleasant Valley ranks #23 of 241 New York towns with a library of their own for visits per resident. That’s 7.7 visits per resident, more than at 89% of similar-size libraries nationwide. How it compares ↓
Still charges late fines, unlike its neighbors
Pleasant Valley Free Library charges late fines on some overdue items. All five libraries in neighboring towns have dropped them. What your card is worth ↓
Pleasant Valley out-borrows every town next door
At 10 loans per resident, Pleasant Valley leads the six towns here. The closest is Washington, at 9.4. Libraries next door ↓
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 Pleasant Valley’s civic life grade
On library visits, community nonprofits and volunteering, Pleasant Valley is ahead of 75% of U.S. towns, #165 of 751 in New York. Library visits hold the grade up; Pleasant Valley’s count of community nonprofits 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 →
32 community nonprofits are registered in Pleasant Valley
3.3 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 (2 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town.
9.1%
9.1% of Pleasant Valley’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 Pleasant Valley’s residents live; 2022.
About 6 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 Pleasant Valley last year.
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.
Pleasant Valley Free Library serves 9,799 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 39 items go out
Fiscal year 2024. The library’s own count.
Mostly books and media off the shelf
102K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
Each of the 48K books and other items on the shelves went out about 1.7 times last year, on average.
18,645 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
Find it
Pleasant Valley Free Library, 1584 Main Street, Pleasant Valley.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Loans renew on their own if no one’s waiting. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy.
New in Pleasant Valley? 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 $2.60 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Pleasant Valley cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $43. Operating budget $648K.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $1.7M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $648K 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 5,206 cardholders ÷ 12.
Libraries next door
Pleasant Valley borrows the most per resident of the 6 towns here. Tap a town to see its library.
| Town | Library | Loans per resident | Hours | Civic life |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pleasant Valley | Pleasant Valley Free Library | 10.4 | 50 | A− |
| Washington | Millbrook Library fine-free | 9.4 | 42 | A |
| LaGrange | Lagrange Association Library fine-free | 5.5 | 51 | C |
| Poughkeepsie | Boardman Road Branch Library fine-free | 5.0 | 58 | C− |
| Clinton | Clinton Community Library fine-free | 4.9 | 50 | A− |
| Hyde Park | Hyde Park Library District fine-free | 2.8 | 48 | C |
| Salt Point | None of its own | — | — | — under 1,000 residents |
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.
- The library’s own count. Libraries report their own visits, loans and programs. A library that didn’t respond keeps its address and hours here, with no numbers.
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 Pleasant Valley
Does Pleasant Valley have a public library?
Yes. Pleasant Valley Free Library, 1584 Main Street, serves Pleasant Valley’s 9,799 residents (the survey’s count) and is open about 50 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Pleasant Valley Free 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 Pleasant Valley’s library?
It logged 7.7 visits and lent 10.4 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3 visits for libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000 people.
What is Pleasant Valley’s civic life grade?
A− Pleasant Valley is ahead of 75% of U.S. towns on civic life, #165 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 Pleasant Valley.
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.