Photo: Renelibrary · CC BY-SA 4.0Ringling’s library logs 2.3 visits per resident, against a typical 3.5 for libraries its size
Ringling Gleason Memorial Library serves Ringling’s 869 residents. Last year it lent 4,793 books, movies and e-books and logged 2,028 visits.
What Ringling’s library is like
Mostly paid for by gifts, not taxes
75% of the library’s income comes from gifts, endowments, fees and other sources, not taxes. Local taxes cover 20%. What your card is worth ↓
A small-town library
Ringling Gleason Memorial Library serves 869 residents with about one full-time staff, open about 23 hours a week. It’s compared only with libraries serving under 2,500 people, because per-person numbers always look big in a small town. A year at the library ↓
Nearly everyone in Ringling has a card
802 cards for 869 people, or 92%. At the typical library serving under 2,500 people, it’s 54%. How it compares ↓
Ringling invests in its library
Ringling Gleason Memorial Library spends $164 per resident a year, about three times the typical $54 for a library its size. What your card is worth ↓
42% of borrowing happens on a screen
E-books, e-audiobooks and streaming make up 42% of loans, more per resident than at 79% of similar-size libraries. Print still makes up 58%. 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; in a town this small, one busy program or a few avid readers move the per-resident numbers.
What’s behind Ringling’s civic life grade
Ringling isn’t graded on civic life: TownRatings grades towns of 1,000 residents or more.
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 →
What a library card is worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Ringling cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $54. Operating budget $142K.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $85K worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $142K 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 802 cardholders ÷ 12.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 4 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving under 2,500 people across the U.S.
Ringling Gleason Memorial Library serves 869 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving under 2,500.
Every hour the doors are open, about 4 items go out
Fiscal year 2024. The library’s own count.
42% of borrowing is digital
4,793 loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
Each of the 10K books and other items on the shelves went out about 0.3 time last year, on average.
2,027 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
48 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 Ringling last year.
Find it
Ringling Gleason Memorial Library, 5th and Main St., Ringling.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Loans renew on their own if no one’s waiting. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy.
New in Ringling? The Handbook →Hours are the survey’s yearly average. Check the library’s own site for today’s hours.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ringling | Ringling Gleason Memorial Library | 5.5 | 23 | — under 1,000 residents |
| Cornish | None of its own | — | — | — under 1,000 residents |
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. Ringling Gleason Memorial 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 Ringling
Does Ringling have a public library?
Yes. Ringling Gleason Memorial Library, 5th and Main St., serves Ringling’s 869 residents (the survey’s count) and is open about 23 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Ringling Gleason Memorial 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 Ringling’s library?
It logged 2.3 visits and lent 5.5 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3.5 visits for libraries serving under 2,500 people.
What is Ringling’s civic life grade?
Ringling isn’t graded on civic life: TownRatings grades towns of 1,000 residents or more. How it works.
Book talk
Reading, story times and the library in Ringling.
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.