Photo: Joe Mabel (on Flickr as Joe Mabel from Seattle, US) · CC BY-SA 3.0Cheney’s library is a branch of Spokane County Library District, which lends more per resident than 54% of systems its size
Cheney’s library is the Cheney Library, a branch of Spokane County Library District, which serves 312,530 people and lent 2.9M items last year.
What stands out about Cheney Library
Read from the library’s own yearly report. The page puts what stands out first.
What’s behind Cheney’s civic life grade
On community nonprofits and volunteering, Cheney is ahead of 91% of U.S. towns, #12 of 152 in Washington. Cheney is graded on two of the three inputs. Both inputs are above most U.S. towns; the share of younger adults in volunteering groups ranks highest.
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 →
68 community nonprofits are registered in Cheney
5.3 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 (14 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town. 2 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
11.6%
11.6% of Cheney’s Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 7.7% in the typical Washington 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 Cheney’s residents live; 2022.
63% of borrowing is digital
2.9M loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
1,788,264 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on all 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 100,000+ people across the U.S.
Spokane County Library District serves 312,530 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 100,000+.
A year at Spokane County Library District
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole Spokane County Library District system. The library’s own count.
About 51 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
Cheney Library, 610 First Street, Cheney.
No late fees. E-books and audiobooks from home. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy. Good at every Spokane County Library District branch.
New in Cheney? 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 $2.37 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Cheney cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $36. Operating budget $18M.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $42M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $18M 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 143,001 cardholders ÷ 12.
What this data can and can’t tell you
From the Public Libraries Survey, fiscal year 2024.
- System-wide. Cheney Library is one branch of Spokane County Library District, so the yearly numbers cover every branch and all 312,530 people it serves.
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 Cheney
Does Cheney have a public library?
Yes: Cheney Library, 610 First Street, is a branch of Spokane County Library District, which serves 312,530 people. The branch is open about 56 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Spokane County Library District 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 Cheney’s library?
It logged 2.4 visits and lent 9.1 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 2.1 visits for libraries serving 100,000+ people.
What is Cheney’s civic life grade?
A Cheney is ahead of 91% of U.S. towns on civic life, #12 of 152 in Washington. 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 Cheney.
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.