Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0Westerly’s library logs 9.7 visits per resident, against a typical 3.1 for libraries its size
Westerly Public Library serves Westerly’s 23,359 residents. Last year it lent 240K books, movies and e-books and logged 227K visits.
What Westerly’s library is like
Westerly has the most-used library in Rhode Island
Out of 29 Rhode Island towns with a library of their own, Westerly comes first for visits per resident. How it compares ↓
Mostly paid for by gifts, not taxes
67% of the library’s income comes from gifts, endowments, fees and other sources, not taxes. Local taxes cover 17%. What your card is worth ↓
Still charges late fines, unlike its neighbors
Westerly Public 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
36,000 people came to the library’s 1,197 programs last year: 1.6 per resident, against a typical 0.4, more than at 96% of similar-size libraries. Kids & programs ↓
Big on e-books and audiobooks
Digital borrowing runs 3.1 e-items per resident, against a typical 1.1, higher than at 88% of similar-size libraries. It’s 30% of all loans. 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.
What’s behind Westerly’s civic life grade
On library visits, community nonprofits and volunteering, Westerly is ahead of 73% of U.S. towns, #8 of 38 in Rhode Island. 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 →
142 community nonprofits are registered in Westerly
6.1 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 (17 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town.
5.5%
5.5% of Westerly’s Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 6.4% in the typical Rhode Island 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 Westerly’s residents live; 2022.
About 7 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 Westerly 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.
Westerly Public Library serves 23,359 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 81 items go out
Fiscal year 2024. The library’s own count.
Mostly books and media off the shelf
240K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
Each of the 95K books and other items on the shelves went out about 1.8 times last year, on average.
71,566 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
Find it
Westerly Public Library, 44 Broad Street, Westerly.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Loans renew on their own if no one’s waiting. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy.
New in Westerly? 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 $1.47 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Westerly cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $43. Operating budget $2.7M.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $4M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $2.7M 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 15,003 cardholders ÷ 12.
Libraries next door
Westerly ranks 2nd of 6 for borrowing per resident. Tap a town to see its library.
| Town | Library | Loans per resident | Hours | Civic life |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charlestown | Cross' Mills Public Library fine-free | 11.7 | 42 | A− |
| Westerly | Westerly Public Library | 10.3 | 57 | B+ |
| North Stonington | Wheeler Library fine-free | 8.4 | 35 | B+ |
| Ashaway | Ashaway Free Library fine-free | 6.5 | 35 | — graded as part of its town |
| Hopkinton | Langworthy Public Library fine-free | 6.2 | 33 | B |
| Stonington | Stonington Free Library fine-free | 3.2 | 53 | B |
| Southold | Floyd Memorial Library fine-free | — | 64 | A |
| Bradford | None of its own | — | — | — graded as part of its town |
| Pawcatuck | 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.
- Visits are a typical-week estimate. Westerly Public 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 Westerly
Does Westerly have a public library?
Yes. Westerly Public Library, 44 Broad Street, serves Westerly’s 23,359 residents (the survey’s count) and is open about 57 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Westerly 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 Westerly’s library?
It logged 9.7 visits and lent 10.3 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3.1 visits for libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000 people.
What is Westerly’s civic life grade?
B+ Westerly is ahead of 73% of U.S. towns on civic life, #8 of 38 in Rhode Island. 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 Westerly.
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.