Bennington Free Library is a public library in Bennington, Bennington County, Vermont.
According to 2000 Census figures as reported by the Vermont Department of Libraries, Bennington Free Library serves a population of 18661, with staffing hours equivalent to 10.77 full time employees. Recent newsletters indicate three employees with an American Library Association accredited Masters of Library Science. Also, volunteers provided an average of 24 hours of services per week.
In 2004 the 11,511 square foot (1069 m²) library reported having a collection of 55,202 books (38,219 adult books, 16,983 juvenile books), or about 2.96 books per capita. In addition the library had 2601 videos and 3968 audio items, for a total collection size of 61,771. The library subscribed to 161 periodicals, 15 of them juvenile.
The number of registered borrowers was not reported. Patrons visited the library a total of 87,742 times, or 4.70 visits per capita. It circulated 77,679 books (50,195 adult, 27,484 juvenile) or 4.16 items per capita. A total of 10,677 reference transactions were also handled. 406 items were requested from other libraries through inter-library loan, 376 lent to other libraries. The library offered 8 adult programs and 170 juvenile programs. Total program attendance was 350 for the adult programs, 10,326 for the juvenile programs. The library was open 48 hour per week.
The annual budget was $389,224. $296,010 of this was raised by local taxes — $15.86 per capita, additionally $7891 was obtain in grant money, $100 from the state and $93,114 from other sources. $264,980 of that was spent on staffing, $54,280 on book purchases, $726 on electronic materials and $69,134 on other expenditures.
As of the 2004 data, the library offered high-speed Internet access. The library owned 21 computers of which 7 were available for public use. It does use content filtering (2006), but the filter can be disabled upon request for those who have proof of adult age. Users logged an average of 163 signups per week.
The library was reported as meeting state standards.