Photo: Mr. Matté (if there is an issue with this image, contact me using this image's Commons talk page, my Commons user talk page, or my English Wikipedia user talk page; I'll know about it a lot faster) · CC BY-SA 4.0Somerset’s library logs 1.2 visits per resident, against a typical 3 for libraries its size
Barker Public Library serves 4,763 people in and around Somerset. Last year it lent 11K books, movies and e-books and logged 5,535 visits.
What stands out about Barker Public Library
Read from the library’s own yearly report. The page puts what stands out first.
What’s behind Somerset’s civic life grade
On community nonprofits and volunteering, Somerset is ahead of 54% of U.S. towns, #335 of 751 in New York. Somerset is graded on two of the three inputs. The share of younger adults in volunteering groups holds the grade up; Somerset’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 →
11 community nonprofits are registered in Somerset
3.6 per 1,000 residents, against a U.S. town median of 3.7. The largest group: environment & animals.
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 (4 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town.
8.2%
8.2% of Somerset’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 Somerset’s residents live; 2022.
Below most similar-size libraries on all 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000 people across the U.S.
Barker Public Library serves 4,763 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 6 items go out
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole Barker Public Library system. The library’s own count.
More than half the print loans are kids’ books
11K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
1,947 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
55 programs a year
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
Barker Public Library, 8708 Main St., Barker.
No late fees. E-books and audiobooks from home. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy. Good at every Barker Public Library branch.
New in Somerset? 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 $1.52 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Somerset cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $43. Operating budget $112K.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $171K worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $112K 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 1,239 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.
- System-wide. Barker Public Library serves 4,763 people in and around Somerset, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Somerset.
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 Somerset
Does Somerset have a public library?
Yes. Barker Public Library, 8708 Main St., serves 4,763 people in and around Somerset (the survey’s count) and is open about 37 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Barker 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 Somerset’s library?
It logged 1.2 visits and lent 2.3 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3 visits for libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000 people.
What is Somerset’s civic life grade?
B− Somerset is ahead of 54% of U.S. towns on civic life, #335 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 Somerset.
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.