New York Public Library

New York, New YorkNonprofit association libraryLarge cityFiscal year January 2024 to December 2024

New York Public Library is a nonprofit public library system based in New York, New York, serving a legal service area of 3,662,652 residents through 85 library buildings. Of all systems profiled nationwide, it leads on total visits, operating spending, program attendance and public computers.

Among the 754 profiled systems in New York, it ranks first for number of library buildings. Among profiled systems serving 1 million or more residents, it ranks first for operating spending per resident, first for print volumes per resident, first for public computers per resident and second for paid staff per resident, but ranks second-lowest for local government's share of operating revenue and seventh-lowest for weekly open hours per outlet.

New York against the 35 systems of its size class

How the measures and percentiles are calculated

New York since FY 2019

Visits were 23% below the FY 2019 count of 16 million (size-class median: −34%). Physical checkouts moved 26% down over the same span.

Visits
Physical checkouts

Who comes to New York programs

Programs for children up to age 11 drew 48% of all program attendance, and sessions averaged 15 people each.

New York in numbers, FY 2024

Visits: 12,325,494
Physical checkouts: 10,069,015
…of children's materials: 3,626,721
Electronic checkouts: 7,049,087
…of e-books: 4,228,129
…of e-audio: 2,769,330
Registered users: 2,241,355
Program sessions: 90,400
Program attendance: 1,386,900
Print volumes: 25,319,115
Audio items (physical): 800,427
Video items (physical): 452,198
Public computers: 4,927
Public service hours, all outlets: 185,564
Paid staff (full-time equivalent): 2,169.3
Operating spending: $367 million
…on books and other materials: $27.2 million
Overdue fines on print items: not charged

Where New York gets its operating money

Operating revenue came to $392 million, or $106.98 per resident. The local-government share sits 27 percentage points below the combined share for the 754 profiled systems in New York.

Local government
State
Federal
Other (fines, fees, gifts, grants)

New York, building by building

The 84 buildings cover 2,132,237 square feet in total, 0.58 square feet per resident against a median of 0.39 for the size class. The largest building is Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at 660,000 square feet; the smallest is Terence Cardinal Cooke-Cathedral Branch at 2,130. The longest hours, 80 a week, are shared by two buildings.

Building	Type	Town	Hours a week	Floor area, sq ft
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building	Central library	New York	56	660,000
115th Street Branch	Branch	New York	45.5	14,080
53rd Street Library	Branch	New York	48.7	28,000
58 Street Branch Library	Branch	New York	53	8,036
67th Street Branch	Branch	New York	40.5	13,788
96th Street Branch	Branch	New York	32.3	13,615
Aguilar Branch	Branch	New York	–	13,126
Allerton Branch	Branch	Bronx	38	12,410
Andrew Heiskell Braille & Talking Book Library	Branch	New York	42	43,000
Battery Park City Library	Branch	New York	46	10,100
Baychester Branch	Branch	Bronx	54	10,000
Belmont Branch	Branch	Bronx	47	21,267
Bloomingdale Branch	Branch	New York	48	20,381
Bronx Library Center	Branch	Bronx	73.5	74,476
Castle Hill Branch	Branch	Bronx	43.5	6,000
Charleston Library	Branch	Staten Island	50	10,000
Chatham Square Branch	Branch	New York	54.4	12,243
Clason's Point Branch	Branch	Bronx	49.4	9,644
Columbus Branch	Branch	New York	50	11,554
Countee Cullen Branch	Branch	New York	–	23,345
Eastchester Branch	Branch	Bronx	50	7,500
Edenwald Branch	Branch	Bronx	51	7,500
Epiphany Branch	Branch	New York	43.7	16,218
Fort Washington Branch	Branch	New York	–	15,158
George Bruce Branch	Branch	New York	25.4	16,364
Grand Central Library	Branch	New York	42.4	13,000
Grand Concourse Branch	Branch	Bronx	59	18,670
Great Kills Branch	Branch	Staten Island	48.5	4,987
Hamilton Fish Park Branch	Branch	New York	–	10,760
Hamilton Grange Branch	Branch	New York	49	20,403
Harlem Branch	Branch	New York	43.8	13,058
High Bridge Branch	Branch	Bronx	48.3	10,400
Hudson Park Branch	Branch	New York	45.1	17,565
Huguenot Park Branch	Branch	Staten Island	46	6,600
Hunt's Point Branch	Branch	Bronx	–	13,715
Inwood Branch	Branch	New York	45.6	20,000
Jerome Park Branch	Branch	Bronx	49.6	7,404
Kingsbridge Branch	Branch	Bronx	47.3	12,812
Kips Bay Branch	Branch	New York	46.1	9,400
Macomb's Bridge Branch	Branch	New York	45.1	3,375
Mariner's Harbor	Branch	Staten Island	46	10,000
Melrose Branch	Branch	Bronx	–	10,000
Morningside Heights Branch	Branch	New York	46.1	17,000
Morrisania Branch	Branch	Bronx	49.4	14,503
Mosholu Branch	Branch	Bronx	45.7	10,285
Mott Haven Branch	Branch	Bronx	49.4	16,020
Muhlenberg Branch	Branch	New York	–	12,953
Mulberry Street Branch	Branch	New York	48	16,000
New Dorp Branch	Branch	Staten Island	50	12,000
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts	Branch	New York	56	138,384
Ottendorfer Branch	Branch	New York	46	8,332
Parkchester Branch	Branch	Bronx	62	14,744
Pelham Bay Branch	Branch	Bronx	46	9,505
Pelham Parkway-Van Nest Branch	Branch	Bronx	47	7,690
Port Richmond Branch	Branch	Staten Island	–	9,429
Richmondtown Branch	Branch	Staten Island	38.2	14,000
Riverside Branch	Branch	New York	50	27,500
Roosevelt Island Branch	Branch	New York	49.6	5,200
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture	Branch	New York	48	67,690
Sedgwick Branch	Branch	Bronx	47	7,500
Seward Park Branch	Branch	New York	53.7	19,681
Soundview Branch	Branch	Bronx	45.1	10,000
South Beach Branch	Branch	Staten Island	46	3,000
Spuyten Duyvil Branch	Branch	Bronx	44.5	7,500
St. Agnes Branch	Branch	New York	51	17,792
St. George Library Center	Branch	Staten Island	48.6	25,029
Stapleton Branch	Branch	Staten Island	44.5	12,000
Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library	Branch	New York	80	159,880
Terence Cardinal Cooke-Cathedral Branch	Branch	New York	–	2,130
Thomas Yoseloff Business Center	Branch	New York	80	21,142
Todt-Hill Westerleigh Branch	Branch	Staten Island	58	14,366
Tompkins Square Branch	Branch	New York	47	14,703
Tottenville Branch	Branch	Staten Island	42	4,683
Tremont Branch	Branch	Bronx	47	11,900
Van Cortlandt Branch	Branch	Bronx	50	5,800
Wakefield Branch	Branch	Bronx	49.6	10,743
Washington Heights Branch	Branch	New York	57.4	24,000
Webster Branch	Branch	New York	53	11,801
West Farms Branch	Branch	Bronx	48.1	15,591
West New Brighton Branch	Branch	Staten Island	42	6,645
Westchester Square Branch	Branch	Bronx	45.1	13,026
Woodlawn Heights Branch	Branch	Bronx	49	2,500
Woodstock Branch	Branch	Bronx	45.5	16,524
Yorkville Branch	Branch	New York	51.5	13,112

A dash marks a value not reported for FY 2024.

Closest in size nationwide

None of these six systems records more visits per resident than this one. The highest checkout rate in the group belongs to Chicago Public Library in Illinois.

System	Based in	Residents	Visits per resident	Checkouts per resident	Spending per resident
Maricopa County Library District	Sun Lakes, AZ	4,726,247	0.36	0.73	$7.51
Los Angeles Public Library	Los Angeles, CA	3,814,318	1.51	2.01	$59.09
LA County Library	Downey, CA	3,248,285	1.70	1.70	$60.09
Chicago Public Library	Chicago, IL	2,746,388	1.77	3.86	$46.01
Brooklyn Public Library	Brooklyn, NY	2,736,074	2.19	2.05	$58.15
Miami-Dade Public Library System	Miami, FL	2,406,299	1.52	1.24	$38.92

Nearest in size within New York

Brooklyn Public Library · Brooklyn · 2,736,074 residents
Queens Borough Public Library · Jamaica · 2,405,464 residents
Buffalo and Erie County Public Library · Buffalo · 954,236 residents
Onondaga County Public Library · Syracuse · 476,516 residents

All profiled systems in New York