Giroux Furniture Company Building · Photo: Mfwills · CC BY-SA 3.0St. Albans’ library lends 2.5 print items per resident, against a typical 3.9 for libraries its size
St. Albans Free Library serves 13,946 people in and around St. Albans. Last year it lent 34K print books and media and logged 48K visits.
What’s behind St. Albans’ civic life grade
On community nonprofits and volunteering, St. Albans is ahead of 56% of U.S. towns, #50 of 71 in Vermont. St. Albans is graded on two of the three inputs. St. Albans’ count of community nonprofits holds 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 →
35 community nonprofits are registered in St. Albans
5.0 per 1,000 residents, against a U.S. town median of 3.7. The largest group: youth, sports & recreation.
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 (4 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town.
6.8%
6.8% of St. Albans’ Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 8.5% in the typical Vermont 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 St. Albans’ residents live; 2022.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 3 of 6 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000 people across the U.S.
St. Albans Free Library serves 13,946 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 15 items go out
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole St. Albans Free Library system. The library’s own count.
Books and media off the shelf
34K print loans last year. The library didn’t report its e-book and e-audiobook loans.
The survey has no count of children’s loans for St. Albans’ library in 2024, so there’s no split between adults’ and kids’ borrowing.
Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
271 programs a year
Story times, clubs, classes and events, across the whole system, by who they’re for.
Programs last year by age group
Find it
St. Albans Free Library, 11 Maiden Lane, St. Albans.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy. Good at every St. Albans Free Library branch.
New in St. Albans? 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 $1.43 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average St. Albans cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $43. Operating budget $479K.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $683K worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $479K 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 6,481 cardholders ÷ 12.
What this data can and can’t tell you
From the Public Libraries Survey, fiscal year 2024.
- Digital loans not reported. Vermont libraries often don’t report e-book loans, so borrowing here is print only.
- System-wide. St. Albans Free Library serves 13,946 people in and around St. Albans, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just St. Albans.
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 St. Albans
Does St. Albans have a public library?
Yes. St. Albans Free Library, 11 Maiden Lane, serves 13,946 people in and around St. Albans (the survey’s count) and is open about 44 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is St. Albans Free 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 St. Albans’ library?
It logged 3.4 visits and lent 2.5 print items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3.1 visits for libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000 people.
What is St. Albans’ civic life grade?
B St. Albans is ahead of 56% of U.S. towns on civic life, #50 of 71 in Vermont. 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 St. Albans.
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.