Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0Garden City’s library runs 18 programs per 1,000 residents, against a typical 14 for libraries its size
Finney County Public Library serves 37,466 people in and around Garden City. Last year it lent 95K books, movies and e-books and logged 74K visits.
What Garden City’s library is like
Few residents carry a card
Only 17% of the people the system serves have a library card, against a typical 39% for its size. How it compares ↓
Open about 67 hours a week
The Garden City branch is open about 67 hours a week, averaged over the year. The building ↓
This summary is written from the numbers on this page. Numbers are the library’s own report to the Public Libraries Survey, fiscal year 2024; Finney County Public Library serves 37,466 people in and around Garden City, and its numbers cover all of them.
What’s behind Garden City’s civic life grade
On community nonprofits and volunteering, Garden City is ahead of 9% of U.S. towns, #143 of 149 in Kansas. Garden City is graded on two of the three inputs. Both inputs sit below most U.S. towns; Garden City’s count of community nonprofits comes closest to the middle.
Most U.S. towns with similar household incomes ($55K–$91K) score higher, so income alone doesn’t account for it.
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 →
66 community nonprofits are registered in Garden City
2.4 per 1,000 residents, against a U.S. town median of 3.7. The largest group: youth, sports & recreation.
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 (31 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town. 2 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
5.1%
5.1% of Garden City’s Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 8.7% in the typical Kansas 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 Garden City’s residents live; 2022.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 2 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people across the U.S.
Finney County Public Library serves 37,466 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 27 items go out
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole Finney County Public Library system. The library’s own count.
More than half the print loans are kids’ books
95K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
30,112 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
About 5 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.
Find it
Finney County Public Library, 605 E Walnut, Garden City.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Loans renew on their own if no one’s waiting. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy. Good at every Finney County Public Library branch.
New in Garden City? 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 $1.53 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Garden City cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $40. Operating budget $1.1M.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $1.7M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $1.1M 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 6,191 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.
| Town | Library | Loans per resident | Hours | Civic life |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Garden City | Finney County Public Library | — | 67 | D |
| Garden City Township | None of its own | — | — | D |
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.
- System-wide. Finney County Public Library serves 37,466 people in and around Garden City, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Garden City.
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 Garden City
Does Garden City have a public library?
Yes. Finney County Public Library, 605 E Walnut, serves 37,466 people in and around Garden City (the survey’s count) and is open about 67 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Finney County 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 Garden City’s library?
It logged 2.0 visits and lent 2.5 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 2.6 visits for libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people.
What is Garden City’s civic life grade?
D Garden City is ahead of 9% of U.S. towns on civic life, #143 of 149 in Kansas. 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 Garden City.
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.