Milwaukee Falls Lime Company · Photo: Sallyajackson · CC BY-SA 3.0Grafton’s library lends 8.7 print items per resident, against a typical 3.9 for libraries its size
U.S.S. Liberty Memorial Public Library serves 18,922 people in and around Grafton. Last year it lent 205K books, movies and e-books and drew 6,232 people to its programs.
What stands out about U.S.S. Liberty Memorial Public Library
Read from the library’s own yearly report. The page puts what stands out first.
What’s behind Grafton’s civic life grade
On community nonprofits and volunteering, Grafton is ahead of 91% of U.S. towns, #33 of 358 in Wisconsin. Its library’s 2024 visits weren’t reported, so Grafton is graded on two of the three inputs. Both inputs are above most U.S. towns; Grafton’s count of community nonprofits ranks highest.
The survey’s stand-in for Grafton’s 2024 visits is its own estimate, so it is left out.
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 →
81 community nonprofits are registered in Grafton
6.5 per 1,000 residents, against a U.S. town median of 3.7. The largest group: human services.
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 (16 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town. 4 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
9.9%
9.9% of Grafton’s Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 8.6% in the typical Wisconsin 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 Grafton’s residents live; 2022.
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.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 5 of 7 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000 people across the U.S.
U.S.S. Liberty Memorial Public Library serves 18,922 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 73 items go out
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole U.S.S. Liberty Memorial Public Library system. The library’s own count.
Not reported for 2024: visits. The survey fills a missing figure with its own estimate; we leave estimates out rather than show them as the library’s count.
Almost half the print loans are kids’ books
205K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
40,255 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
Find it
U.S.S. Liberty Memorial Public Library, 1620 11th Ave., Grafton.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy. Good at every U.S.S. Liberty Memorial Public Library branch.
New in Grafton? 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 $3.74 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Grafton cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $43. Operating budget $835K.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $3.1M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $835K 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 9,529 cardholders ÷ 12.
Libraries next door
Who has a library of their own, and how much each town borrows. Tap a town to see its library.
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.
- Not reported for 2024: visits. U.S.S. Liberty Memorial Public Library didn’t report visits; the survey’s estimate is its own, so we leave it out and never rank it.
- System-wide. U.S.S. Liberty Memorial Public Library serves 18,922 people in and around Grafton, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Grafton.
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 Grafton
Does Grafton have a public library?
Yes. U.S.S. Liberty Memorial Public Library, 1620 11th Ave., serves 18,922 people in and around Grafton (the survey’s count) and is open about 54 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is U.S.S. Liberty Memorial 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 Grafton’s library?
It lent 10.8 items per resident in 2024 (print and digital) and ran 325 programs that drew 6,232 people. Visits weren’t reported for 2024.
What is Grafton’s civic life grade?
A Grafton is ahead of 91% of U.S. towns on civic life, #33 of 358 in Wisconsin. 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 Grafton.
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.