Photo: Renelibrary · CC BY-SA 4.0Mineola’s library logs 1.3 visits per resident, against a typical 3.1 for libraries its size
Mineola Memorial Library serves 10,726 people in and around Mineola. Last year it lent 27K books, movies and e-books and logged 14K visits.
What Mineola’s library is like
Mostly paid for by gifts, not taxes
100% of the system’s income comes from gifts, endowments, fees and other sources, not taxes. Local taxes cover 0%. What your card is worth ↓
Almost all the borrowing is off the shelf
Only 0% of loans are e-books, audiobooks or streaming, fewer per resident than at 97% of similar-size libraries. 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; Mineola Memorial Library serves 10,726 people in and around Mineola, and its numbers cover all of them.
What’s behind Mineola’s civic life grade
On community nonprofits and volunteering, Mineola is ahead of 41% of U.S. towns, #185 of 539 in Texas. Mineola is graded on two of the three inputs. Mineola’s count of community nonprofits holds the grade up; the share of younger adults in volunteering groups pulls it down.
Most U.S. towns with similar household incomes ($40K–$66K) 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 →
21 community nonprofits are registered in Mineola
4.1 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 (8 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town.
6.5%
6.5% of Mineola’s Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 5.7% in the typical Texas 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 Mineola’s residents live; 2022.
Below most similar-size libraries on all 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000 people across the U.S.
Mineola Memorial Library serves 10,726 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 13 items go out
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole Mineola Memorial Library system. The library’s own count.
More than half the print loans are kids’ books
27K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
42 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
About 3 kids’ programs a week
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
Mineola Memorial Library, 301 N Pacific St., Mineola.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy. Good at every Mineola Memorial Library branch.
New in Mineola? 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 $1.69 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Mineola cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $43. Operating budget $267K.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $451K worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $267K 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 3,522 cardholders ÷ 12.
What this data can and can’t tell you
From the Public Libraries Survey, fiscal year 2024.
- System-wide. Mineola Memorial Library serves 10,726 people in and around Mineola, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Mineola.
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 Mineola
Does Mineola have a public library?
Yes. Mineola Memorial Library, 301 N Pacific St., serves 10,726 people in and around Mineola (the survey’s count) and is open about 40 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Mineola 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 Mineola’s library?
It logged 1.3 visits and lent 2.6 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3.1 visits for libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000 people.
What is Mineola’s civic life grade?
C+ Mineola is ahead of 41% of U.S. towns on civic life, #185 of 539 in Texas. 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 Mineola.
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.