Southeast Steuben County Library
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 161592035
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2011–2025
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Corning, NY, USA
- Phone
- 6079363713
- Rating
- 88
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Libraries
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $2,263,401
- Expenses
- $1,971,798
- Assets
- $12,520,480
- Liabilities
- $1,712,993
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
14 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- PAULINE EMERY (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
- LYNDSIE M GUY (PRESIDENT)
- BARBARA MCLEAN (VICE PRESIDENT)
Highest reported compensation
- PAULINE EMERY (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $145,287 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The southeast steuben county library provides free and open access to collections, electronic resources, and innovative services which anticipate, support, and respond to the ever-changing informational, cultural, and leisure needs of all people within our community.
What it reported doing in 2025
The southeast steuben county library is dedicated to its mission to provide "free and open access to collections, electronic resources and innovative services which anticipate, support and respond to the ever-changing informational, cultural and leisure needs of all people within our community." successor to the corning area library (which closed in 1999 after a public referendum to establish a library district failed), the southeast steuben county library now has a permanent charter as an association library. The library opened to the public in december 2000 at its 24,000-square-foot facility in nasser civic center plaza, corning, ny. The library won a public funding vote on october 21, 2014. The board of regents approved the library's absolute charter on june 14, 2016. The library is governed by a board of trustees with up to 15 members, with 13 trustees currently serving. The library is a member of the southern tier library system, which provides services to its 48 regional member libraries and reading rooms.southeast steuben county library serves 34,000 residents in a large geographic area including the city of corning, ny and the towns of erwin, campbell, corning, caton, hornby and lindley.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 79% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filed totals do not add up and liabilities are high compared with assets.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 84
- Transparency & Controls: 86
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 64
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 79.5%; rating input score 80
- Program expense ratio: 87.5%; rating input score 87
- Fundraising efficiency: $618.96 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 96; 96th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 92.3%; rating input score 92; 11th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 8 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 100
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 12.9%; rating input score 62; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 6.35; rating input score 84; 84th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.14; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 7.4%; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 4.6% per year; rating input score 100; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 5.3% per year; rating input score 100; 40th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 5.3% per year; rating input score 100; 35th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- Where the money goes: 79.5% of revenue deployed · 87.5% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 13 of 13 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.7M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $145K · 14 people listed
- Consistency: 31 of 32 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 15 filing years from 2011 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
- Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
- People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
- Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 43/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 43/100.