Photo: JERRYE AND ROY KLOTZ MD · CC BY-SA 3.0Clear Lake’s library lends 20 print items per resident, against a typical 3.9 for libraries its size
Clear Lake City Library serves Clear Lake’s 1,216 residents. Last year it lent 27K books, movies and e-books and logged 18K visits.
What Clear Lake’s library is like
Clear Lake uses its library more than almost any town its size
Clear Lake City Library logs 15 visits per resident, against a typical 3.5 for libraries serving under 2,500 people, and lends 20 print items per resident against a typical 3.9. On both counts it beats 96% of similar-size libraries across the U.S. How it compares ↓
Kids borrow more here than almost anywhere
Children’s books and media are 50% of print loans, and kids’ borrowing per resident is higher than at 97% of similar-size libraries. That works out to about 41 items per child in Clear Lake last year. Kids & programs ↓
A small-town library
Clear Lake City Library serves 1,216 residents with about 2 full-time staff, open about 33 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 ↓
Programs draw a crowd
3,799 people came to the library’s 253 programs last year: 3.1 per resident, against a typical 0.7, more than at 93% 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; in a town this small, one busy program or a few avid readers move the per-resident numbers.
What’s behind Clear Lake’s civic life grade
On library visits, community nonprofits and volunteering, Clear Lake is ahead of 76% of U.S. towns. Clear Lake’s count of community nonprofits holds the grade up; the share of younger adults in volunteering groups pulls it down.
Clear Lake City Library logged 15.0 visits per resident in FY2024, #67 of the 3,790 town libraries we compare. The survey counts every visit, residents or not, and libraries don’t report how many come from out of town.
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 →
18 community nonprofits are registered in Clear Lake
13.6 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 (3 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town.
3.5%
3.5% of Clear Lake’s Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 6.9% in the typical South Dakota 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 Clear Lake’s residents live; 2022.
About 3 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 Clear Lake last year.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 7 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving under 2,500 people across the U.S.
Clear Lake City Library serves 1,216 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving under 2,500.
Every hour the doors are open, about 16 items go out
Fiscal year 2024. The library’s own count.
More than half the print loans are kids’ books
27K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
Each of the 23K books and other items on the shelves went out about 1.1 time last year, on average.
2,694 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
Find it
Clear Lake City Library, 125 3rd Ave S, Clear Lake.
No late fees. E-books and audiobooks from home. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy.
New in Clear Lake? 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 $5.23 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Clear Lake cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $54. Operating budget $85K.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $444K worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $85K 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 600 cardholders ÷ 12.
What this data can and can’t tell you
From the Public Libraries Survey, fiscal year 2024.
- Visits count everyone. Clear Lake’s 18,250 visits include people from nearby towns and summer visitors; the survey has no resident share.
- Visits are a typical-week estimate. Clear Lake City 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 Clear Lake
Does Clear Lake have a public library?
Yes. Clear Lake City Library, 125 3rd Ave S, serves Clear Lake’s 1,216 residents (the survey’s count) and is open about 33 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Clear Lake City 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 Clear Lake’s library?
It logged 15.0 visits and lent 22.6 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3.5 visits for libraries serving under 2,500 people.
What is Clear Lake’s civic life grade?
A− Clear Lake is ahead of 76% of U.S. towns on civic life. 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 Clear Lake.
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.