Photo: Don O'Brien from Piketon, Ohio, United States · CC BY 2.0Vestal’s library logs 3.4 visits per resident, against a typical 2.6 for libraries its size
Vestal Public Library serves 32,816 people in and around Vestal. Last year it lent 160K books, movies and e-books and logged 111K visits.
What stands out about Vestal Public Library
Read from the library’s own yearly report. The page puts what stands out first.
What’s behind Vestal’s civic life grade
On library visits, community nonprofits and volunteering, Vestal is ahead of 73% of U.S. towns, #182 of 751 in New York. Vestal’s count of community nonprofits 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 →
162 community nonprofits are registered in Vestal
5.2 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 (30 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town. 5 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
9.4%
9.4% of Vestal’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 Vestal’s residents live; 2022.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 3 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people across the U.S.
Vestal Public Library serves 32,816 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 55 items go out
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole Vestal Public Library system. The library’s own count.
More than half the print loans are kids’ books
160K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
15,596 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
Vestal Public Library, 320 Vestal Parkway East, Vestal.
No late fees. E-books and audiobooks from home. Loans renew on their own if no one’s waiting. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy. Good at every Vestal Public Library branch.
New in Vestal? 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 $2.90 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Vestal cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $40. Operating budget $813K.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $2.4M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $813K 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 12,435 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Owego | Apalachin Library Association fine-free | 11.2 | 35 | A− |
| Union | George F. Johnson Memorial Library fine-free | 9.3 | 58 | C+ |
| Endicott | George F. Johnson Memorial Library fine-free | 9.3 | 58 | B+ |
| Johnson City | Your Home Public Library fine-free | 3.2 | 34 | C |
| Vestal | Vestal Public Library fine-free | — | 56 | B+ |
| Binghamton | Broome County Public Library fine-free | — | 60 | B |
| Binghamton | None of its own | — | — | D |
| Endwell | 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. Vestal Public Library serves 32,816 people in and around Vestal, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Vestal.
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 Vestal
Does Vestal have a public library?
Yes. Vestal Public Library, 320 Vestal Parkway East, serves 32,816 people in and around Vestal (the survey’s count) and is open about 56 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Vestal 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 Vestal’s library?
It logged 3.4 visits and lent 4.9 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 2.6 visits for libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people.
What is Vestal’s civic life grade?
B+ Vestal is ahead of 73% of U.S. towns on civic life, #182 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 Vestal.
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.