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 4.0Yates’ library runs 12 programs per 1,000 residents, against a typical 34 for libraries its size
Yates Community Library serves 4,124 people in and around Yates. Last year it lent 12K books, movies and e-books and logged 8,458 visits.
What’s behind Yates’ civic life grade
On community nonprofits and volunteering, Yates is ahead of 14% of U.S. towns, #674 of 751 in New York. Yates is graded on two of the three inputs. Both inputs sit below most U.S. towns; Yates’ count of community nonprofits comes closest to the middle.
Most U.S. towns with similar household incomes ($66K–$109K) 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 →
6 community nonprofits are registered in Yates
2.5 per 1,000 residents, against a U.S. town median of 3.7. The largest group: education.
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 (3 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town.
5.8%
5.8% of Yates’ 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 Yates’ 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.
Yates Community Library serves 4,124 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 Yates Community Library system. The library’s own count.
Mostly books and media off the shelf
12K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
2,079 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
51 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
Yates Community Library, 15 North Main Street, Lyndonville.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy. Good at every Yates Community Library branch.
New in Yates? 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 $1.22 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Yates cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $43. Operating budget $162K.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $198K worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $162K 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 1,180 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. Yates Community Library serves 4,124 people in and around Yates, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Yates.
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 Yates
Does Yates have a public library?
Yes. Yates Community Library, 15 North Main Street, serves 4,124 people in and around Yates (the survey’s count) and is open about 40 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Yates Community 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 Yates’ library?
It logged 2.1 visits and lent 2.8 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3 visits for libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000 people.
What is Yates’ civic life grade?
D Yates is ahead of 14% of U.S. towns on civic life, #674 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 Yates.
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.