Gilfillan Farm · Photo: Daniel Case · CC BY-SA 3.0Upper St. Clair Township’s library lends 13 print items per resident, against a typical 3.9 for libraries its size
Upper St. Clair Township Library serves Upper St. Clair Township’s 21,160 residents. Last year it lent 362K books, movies and e-books and logged 98K visits.
What Upper St. Clair Township’s library is like
More than half the print loans are for kids
Children’s books and media are 56% of print loans, and kids’ borrowing per resident is higher than at 96% of similar-size libraries. That works out to about 29 items per child in Upper St. Clair Township last year. Kids & programs ↓
Big on e-books and audiobooks
Digital borrowing runs 4.2 e-items per resident, against a typical 1.1, higher than at 95% of similar-size libraries. It’s 25% of all loans. What people borrow ↓
Top 10% in Pennsylvania for borrowing
Upper St. Clair Township ranks #7 of 109 Pennsylvania towns with a library of their own for items borrowed per resident. Print borrowing alone runs 13 items per resident, more than at 95% of similar-size libraries nationwide. How it compares ↓
Still charges late fines, unlike its neighbors
Upper St. Clair Township Library charges late fines on some overdue items. All six libraries in neighboring towns have dropped them. What your card is worth ↓
Programs draw a crowd
28,000 people came to the library’s 918 programs last year: 1.3 per resident, against a typical 0.4, more than at 94% of similar-size libraries. Kids & programs ↓
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 Upper St. Clair Township’s civic life grade
On library visits, community nonprofits and volunteering, Upper St. Clair Township is ahead of 60% of U.S. towns, #234 of 1,029 in Pennsylvania. Library visits hold 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 →
89 community nonprofits are registered in Upper St. Clair Township
4.3 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 (7 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town. 3 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
7.1%
7.1% of Upper St. Clair Township’s Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 7.0% in the typical Pennsylvania 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 Upper St. Clair Township’s residents live; 2022.
About 12 kids’ programs a week
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 Upper St. Clair Township last year.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on all 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000 people across the U.S.
Upper St. Clair Township Library serves 21,160 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 134 items go out
Fiscal year 2024. The library’s own count.
More than half the print loans are kids’ books
362K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
Each of the 57K books and other items on the shelves went out about 4.8 times last year, on average.
89,105 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
Find it
Upper St. Clair Township Library, 1820 Mclaughlin Run Rd, Upper St. Clair.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Loans renew on their own if no one’s waiting. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy.
New in Upper St. Clair Township? 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 $5.12 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Upper St. Clair Township cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $43. Operating budget $1.1M.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $5.5M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $1.1M 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 10,472 cardholders ÷ 12.
Libraries next door
Upper St. Clair Township ranks 3rd of 7 for borrowing per resident. Tap a town to see its library.
| Town | Library | Loans per resident | Hours | Civic life |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount Lebanon | Mt Lebanon Public Library fine-free | 22.4 | 66 | — too few inputs |
| Bridgeville | Bridgeville Public Library fine-free | 21.0 | 48 | B |
| Upper St. Clair Township | Upper St. Clair Township Library | 17.1 | 52 | B |
| Peters Township | Peters Township Public Library fine-free | 13.0 | 56 | B |
| Bethel Park | Bethel Park Public Library fine-free | 9.9 | 57 | C |
| South Fayette Township | South Fayette Twp Library fine-free | 7.4 | 48 | C+ |
| Scott Township | Scott Township Public Library fine-free | 4.7 | 47 | C |
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.
- The library’s own count. Libraries report their own visits, loans and programs. A library that didn’t respond keeps its address and hours here, with no numbers.
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 Upper St. Clair Township
Does Upper St. Clair Township have a public library?
Yes. Upper St. Clair Township Library, 1820 Mclaughlin Run Rd, serves Upper St. Clair Township’s 21,160 residents (the survey’s count) and is open about 52 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Upper St. Clair Township 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 Upper St. Clair Township’s library?
It logged 4.6 visits and lent 17.1 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3.1 visits for libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000 people.
What is Upper St. Clair Township’s civic life grade?
B Upper St. Clair Township is ahead of 60% of U.S. towns on civic life, #234 of 1,029 in Pennsylvania. 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 Upper St. Clair Township.
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.