Orange County Public Library ranks among North Carolina’s stronger-performing library systems on several measures, particularly circulation.
In FY2025, cardholders borrowed 632,712 items, the library’s busiest year in at least a decade. The figures below show the materials available to residents, how the library was used, and where OCPL stands among library systems statewide. Everything here comes from the annual statistics the library reports to the State Library of North Carolina.
What Changed in FY2025
Compared with FY2024, use increased across every major measure.
These increases reflect both growing use and a larger service footprint: the Southern Branch opened in spring 2025, and a restored calendar of storytimes, performances, and other programs contributed to the gains.
Collection
The materials available to residents in FY2025, physical and digital.
Digital totals include materials available through shared statewide collections and do not necessarily represent titles owned exclusively by OCPL.
Annual Use
How the community used OCPL in FY2025.
Physical vs. digital circulation
Children’s books vs. other circulation
Where OCPL Ranks Statewide
Statewide rankings compare OCPL with North Carolina’s 84 public library systems using FY2025 per-resident measures.
Service area population: 91,929 | Total operating budget: $3.30M ($35.94/resident, FY2025)
Each line shows the range among North Carolina’s 84 systems; the marker identifies OCPL’s FY2025 position. Spending and staffing lines show where OCPL sits, not a score to maximize.
How the library is used
Funding and collection investment
Programs
Staffing, collection size, and efficiency
Key Insights
Circulation is a clear strength
At 6.88 checkouts per resident (#17 of 84), OCPL lends 632,712 items a year, nearly double the median NC system’s rate of 3.60.
The program gap is supply, not demand
Program attendance rose 93% this year, the largest gain of any measure here. OCPL still offers fewer programs per resident than most NC systems (#64 of 84), while turnout at the ones it runs is above the median. People show up; there aren’t yet enough programs.
Strong returns on the public investment
OCPL’s operating budget was about $35.94 per resident in FY2025, above the NC median but below the national average. It turns that into above-median checkouts per operating dollar and rapidly growing use. See how the funding gap works.
Peer Library Comparison
Compare OCPL with the 34 NC library systems serving similarly sized populations (60,000–165,000 residents) in FY2025. Select a measure to see how OCPL ranks among its closest population peers. The chart opens with OCPL, the highest and lowest peers, and the five systems on either side of OCPL.
View data table
| Library system | Value |
|---|
Statewide median shown as a dashed line. Where one system far outpaces the field, the axis is capped and that bar is labeled with its actual value.
Why These Numbers Matter to the Friends
County funding provides the library’s essential foundation: staff, buildings, hours, and the core collection. The Friends supplement that public investment, never replace it, through programs, equipment, staff development, advocacy, and other opportunities that extend what the library can offer. Since 1981, that has meant turning local memberships, donations, book-sale proceeds, and volunteer time into more than $200,000 in grants since 2010, and 502 residents speaking up for the library’s budget in 2026.
The rankings above are not a scoreboard. They are how the Friends decide where help goes furthest, and this year’s data points to four places.
Fund More Programs
OCPL offers fewer programs per resident than most NC systems (#64 of 84), yet attendance at the ones it runs is above the median. Friends grants pay for the performers, workshops, and summer reading that close that gap.
Make a Gift →Help a Neighbor Get a Card
About one in four residents holds an active library card (#40 of 84), while borrowing per resident is top-quartile. September is national Library Card Sign-Up Month, an easy moment to bring someone new through the door.
How to Get a Card →Stand Up at Budget Time
Everything on this page rides on county funding decisions. In 2026, 502 residents spoke up and the library’s budget held. Membership makes that voice permanent.
Join the Friends →Give Your Time
Use rose across every measure in FY2025, and a second branch means more to do. Book sales, events, and advocacy run on short volunteer shifts; no experience is needed.
Volunteer →Prefer another way to help? Explore book sales, business sponsorships, and current campaigns.
Our Commitment to You
Membership Goes Both Ways
The county sets the library’s budget. Nearly everything that happens on top of that budget has to come from somewhere, and for OCPL that somewhere has been the Friends since 1981.
The gap between a library that meets the minimum and one people actually rely on is what the Friends exist to cover. Here is what members can expect from us in return.
Our Pledge to Members
- We will use every dollar raised to directly support OCPL programs, services, and community outreach.
- We will advocate loudly and consistently for the library’s funding, resources, and long-term stability.
- We will be transparent about our finances and how member dues and donations are put to work.
- We will keep members informed and give you meaningful ways to engage beyond just writing a check.
- We will pursue new partnerships, sponsors, and funding sources so your investment goes further every year.
More Than the Numbers
These figures measure activity: checkouts, visits, sessions, attendance. They cannot measure what the library means to the people who use it, the job found, the child hooked on reading, the neighbor who had somewhere to go. That part of the story belongs to the community, and it is the part that matters most.
Latest annual data: FY2025 · Page updated September 2026
Sources and Methodology
Every figure on this page is computed from the Statistical Report of North Carolina Public Libraries, FY2025 (State Library of North Carolina): OCPL’s report and those of the other 83 reporting NC public library systems.
- Statewide rankings cover the 84 NC public library systems that reported FY2025 data. Per-resident figures divide each system’s reported totals by its legal service-area population.
- The peer group is every NC system serving 60,000–165,000 residents (34 systems in FY2025), a range that brackets OCPL’s 91,929.
- Circulation is the survey’s total collection use: physical checkouts, digital borrowing (eBooks, eAudio, eVideo), and database use, following the survey’s counting rules, in which renewals count as circulation transactions.
- Children’s-book figures are the survey’s juvenile-book circulation; young-adult materials are counted separately and are not included in them.
- Visits, active cardholders, and program attendance follow the survey’s definitions; a person who attends several programs is counted at each. The cardholder definition changed for FY2025, so no year-over-year change is shown for it.
- Missing data: a system that did not report a measure is excluded from that measure’s ranking, so the “of” count can vary slightly between measures.
- Digital collection totals include shared statewide e-collections available to all NC cardholders, not only titles OCPL licenses on its own.
- Some measures are shown but not ranked. Website visits, reference transactions, and Wi-Fi and computer session counts are reported inconsistently across systems (different sensors, logging, and counting rules), so OCPL’s totals appear on this page without statewide rankings. E-collection holdings are not compared across systems because shared statewide collections are attributed to every library.
- Figures update automatically when a new survey year is imported. For ten-year trends, see Library Trends.
This page is maintained by the Friends of the Orange County Public Library.
