Photo: Farragutful · CC BY-SA 4.0Rockville Centre’s library runs 53 programs per 1,000 residents, against a typical 24 for libraries its size
Rockville Centre Public Library serves 24,114 people in and around Rockville Centre. Last year it lent 232K books, movies and e-books and logged 147K visits.
Rockville Centre’s library, in brief
Still charges late fines, unlike its neighbors
Rockville Centre Public Library charges late fines on some overdue items. Three of the five libraries in neighboring towns have dropped them. What your card is worth ↓
A well-funded system
Rockville Centre Public Library spends $157 per resident a year, about four times the typical $43 for a library its size. Almost all of it (96%) comes from local taxes. What your card is worth ↓
Open about 64 hours a week
The Rockville Centre branch is open about 64 hours a week, averaged over the year. The building ↓
Big on e-books and audiobooks
Digital borrowing runs 2.9 e-items per resident, against a typical 1.1, higher than at 87% of similar-size libraries. It’s 30% of all loans. What people borrow ↓
Programs lean toward adults
62% of the 1,284 programs last year were for adults: classes, talks, clubs and events. 403 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; Rockville Centre Public Library serves 24,114 people in and around Rockville Centre, and its numbers cover all of them.
What’s behind Rockville Centre’s civic life grade
On library visits, community nonprofits and volunteering, Rockville Centre is ahead of 72% of U.S. towns, #198 of 751 in New York. Library visits hold the grade up; Rockville Centre’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 →
95 community nonprofits are registered in Rockville Centre
3.7 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 (20 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town. 6 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
8.5%
8.5% of Rockville Centre’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 Rockville Centre’s residents live; 2022.
About 8 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.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on all 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000 people across the U.S.
Rockville Centre Public Library serves 24,114 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 70 items go out
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole Rockville Centre Public Library system. The library’s own count.
Almost half the print loans are kids’ books
232K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
69,619 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
Find it
Rockville Centre Public Library, 221 North Village Avenue, Rockville Centre.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Loans renew on their own if no one’s waiting. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy. Good at every Rockville Centre Public Library branch.
New in Rockville Centre? 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 Rockville Centre cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $43. Operating budget $3.8M.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $3.8M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $3.8M 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 13,036 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| East Rockaway | East Rockaway Public Library | 7.3 | 55 | B+ |
| Lynbrook | Lynbrook Public Library | 6.1 | 55 | C+ |
| Rockville Centre | Rockville Centre Public Library | — | 64 | B+ |
| Baldwin | Baldwin Public Library fine-free | — | 61 | — graded as part of its town |
| Lakeview | Lakeview Public Library fine-free | — | 54 | — graded as part of its town |
| Oceanside | Oceanside Library fine-free | — | 63 | — graded as part of its town |
| South Hempstead | 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. Rockville Centre Public Library serves 24,114 people in and around Rockville Centre, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Rockville Centre.
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 Rockville Centre
Does Rockville Centre have a public library?
Yes. Rockville Centre Public Library, 221 North Village Avenue, serves 24,114 people in and around Rockville Centre (the survey’s count) and is open about 64 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Rockville Centre 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 Rockville Centre’s library?
It logged 6.1 visits and lent 9.6 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3.1 visits for libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000 people.
What is Rockville Centre’s civic life grade?
B+ Rockville Centre is ahead of 72% of U.S. towns on civic life, #198 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 Rockville Centre.
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.