First Presbyterian Church · Photo: Doug Kerr from Albany, NY, United States · CC BY-SA 2.0Spencer’s library logs 2.3 visits per resident, against a typical 3 for libraries its size
Spencer Library serves Spencer’s 2,968 residents. Last year it lent 11K books, movies and e-books and logged 6,681 visits.
What Spencer’s library is like
Still charges late fines, unlike its neighbors
Spencer Library charges late fines on some overdue items. All three libraries in neighboring towns have dropped them. What your card is worth ↓
Few residents carry a card
Only 18% of the people Spencer Library serves have a library card, against a typical 42% for its size. How it compares ↓
Gifts and endowments pay a real share
28% of the library’s income comes from gifts, endowments, fees and other sources, not taxes. Local taxes cover 68%. What your card is worth ↓
A big collection for the borrowing it gets
Spencer Library holds 23,000 books and other items, but the average item went out less than once last year. What people borrow ↓
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 Spencer’s civic life grade
On library visits, community nonprofits and volunteering, Spencer is ahead of 72% of U.S. towns, #199 of 751 in New York. The share of younger adults in volunteering groups 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 →
15 community nonprofits are registered in Spencer
5.1 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 (4 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town.
12.9%
12.9% of Spencer’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 Spencer’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.
Spencer Library serves 2,968 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 8 items go out
Fiscal year 2024. The library’s own count.
Mostly books and media off the shelf
11K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
Each of the 23K books and other items on the shelves went out about 0.4 time last year, on average.
1,552 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
101 programs a year
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 Spencer last year.
Find it
Spencer Library, 41 North Main Street, Spencer.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Loans renew on their own if no one’s waiting. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy.
New in Spencer? 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 $3.10 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Spencer cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $43. Operating budget $58K.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $181K worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $58K 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 524 cardholders ÷ 12.
Libraries next door
Spencer ranks 3rd of 3 for borrowing per resident. 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. Spencer Library counted one typical week and multiplied by 52, as the survey allows.
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 Spencer
Does Spencer have a public library?
Yes. Spencer Library, 41 North Main Street, serves Spencer’s 2,968 residents (the survey’s count) and is open about 28 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Spencer 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 Spencer’s library?
It logged 2.3 visits and lent 3.7 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3 visits for libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000 people.
What is Spencer’s civic life grade?
B+ Spencer is ahead of 72% of U.S. towns on civic life, #199 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 Spencer.
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.