Photo: The original uploader was Duke53 at English Wikipedia. · CC BY-SA 2.5Tupper Lake’s library logs 4.3 visits per resident, against a typical 3 for libraries its size
Tupper Lake Public Library serves 5,432 people in and around Tupper Lake. Last year it lent 16K print books and media and logged 23K visits.
What stands out about Tupper Lake Public Library
Read from the library’s own yearly report. The page puts what stands out first.
What’s behind Tupper Lake’s civic life grade
On community nonprofits and volunteering, Tupper Lake is ahead of 56% of U.S. towns, #325 of 751 in New York. Tupper Lake is graded on two of the three inputs. Tupper Lake’s count of community nonprofits holds the grade up; the share of younger adults in volunteering groups 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 →
33 community nonprofits are registered in Tupper Lake
11.3 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 (1 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town.
4.6%
4.6% of Tupper Lake’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 Tupper Lake’s residents live; 2022.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 5 of 7 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000 people across the U.S.
Tupper Lake Public Library serves 5,432 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 Tupper Lake Public Library system. The library’s own count.
Books and media off the shelf
16K print loans last year. The library didn’t report its e-book and e-audiobook loans.
Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
About 2 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
Tupper Lake Public Library, 41 Lake Street, Tupper Lake.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy. Good at every Tupper Lake Public Library branch.
New in Tupper Lake? 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 $1.17 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Tupper Lake cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $43. Operating budget $255K.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $300K worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $255K 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 4,026 cardholders ÷ 12.
What this data can and can’t tell you
From the Public Libraries Survey, fiscal year 2024.
- Digital loans not reported. New York libraries often don’t report e-book loans, so borrowing here is print only.
- System-wide. Tupper Lake Public Library serves 5,432 people in and around Tupper Lake, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Tupper Lake.
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 Tupper Lake
Does Tupper Lake have a public library?
Yes. Tupper Lake Public Library, 41 Lake Street, serves 5,432 people in and around Tupper Lake (the survey’s count) and is open about 52 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Tupper Lake 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 Tupper Lake’s library?
It logged 4.3 visits and lent 3.0 print items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3 visits for libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000 people.
What is Tupper Lake’s civic life grade?
B Tupper Lake is ahead of 56% of U.S. towns on civic life, #325 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 Tupper Lake.
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.