Photo: JayHeritageCenter · CC BY-SA 4.0Rye’s library logs 3.2 visits per resident, against a typical 2.6 for libraries its size
Port Chester-Rye Brook Public Library serves 41,740 people in and around Rye. Last year it lent 153K books, movies and e-books and logged 136K visits.
What stands out about Port Chester-Rye Brook Public Library
Read from the library’s own yearly report. The page puts what stands out first.
What’s behind Rye’s civic life grade
On library visits, community nonprofits and volunteering, Rye is ahead of 18% of U.S. towns, #645 of 751 in New York. All three inputs sit below most U.S. towns; library visits come closest to the middle.
Rye’s 2024 visits are an estimate from one typical week (the survey’s method for libraries that don’t count every visit).
Most U.S. towns with similar household incomes ($81K–$135K) score higher, so income alone doesn’t account for it.
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 →
150 community nonprofits are registered in Rye
3.1 per 1,000 residents, against a U.S. town median of 3.7. The largest group: youth, sports & recreation.
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 (35 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town. 11 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
3.0%
3.0% of Rye’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 Rye’s residents live; 2022.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 5 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people across the U.S.
Port Chester-Rye Brook Public Library serves 41,740 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 53 items go out
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole Port Chester-Rye Brook Public Library system. The library’s own count.
More than half the print loans are kids’ books
153K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
57,668 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
Port Chester-Rye Brook Public Library, 1 Haseco Avenue, Port Chester.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Loans renew on their own if no one’s waiting. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy. Good at every Port Chester-Rye Brook Public Library branch.
New in Rye? 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 $1.25 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Rye cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $40. Operating budget $1.9M.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $2.4M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $1.9M 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 9,382 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mamaroneck | Larchmont Public Library | 16.4 | 56 | B− |
| Greenwich | Greenwich Library fine-free | 15.1 | 63 | B+ |
| Byram | Byram Shubert Branch Library fine-free | 15.1 | 45 | — graded as part of its town |
| Harrison | Harrison Public Library fine-free | 8.1 | 55 | B− |
| Harrison | Harrison Public Library fine-free | 8.1 | 55 | — graded with its twin city |
| Mamaroneck | Mamaroneck Public Library District | 6.9 | 50 | B− |
| Rye | Port Chester-Rye Brook Public Library | — | 55 | C− |
| Port Chester | Port Chester-Rye Brook Public Library | — | 55 | D |
| Rye Brook | None of its own | — | — | D− |
| Glenville | 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.
- Visits are a typical-week estimate. Port Chester-Rye Brook Public Library counted one typical week and multiplied by 52, as the survey allows.
- System-wide. Port Chester-Rye Brook Public Library serves 41,740 people in and around Rye, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Rye.
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 Rye
Does Rye have a public library?
Yes. Port Chester-Rye Brook Public Library, 1 Haseco Avenue, serves 41,740 people in and around Rye (the survey’s count) and is open about 55 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Port Chester-Rye Brook 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 Rye’s library?
It logged 3.2 visits and lent 3.7 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 2.6 visits for libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people.
What is Rye’s civic life grade?
C− Rye is ahead of 18% of U.S. towns on civic life, #645 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 Rye.
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.