Photo: Harris Walker · CC BY 2.0Rocky Mount’s library lends 1.2 print items per resident, against a typical 3.7 for libraries its size
Braswell Memorial Public Library serves 91,931 people in and around Rocky Mount. Last year it lent 143K books, movies and e-books and logged 109K visits.
What Rocky Mount’s library is like
Braswell Memorial Public Library is used less than most libraries its size
Braswell Memorial Public Library records 1.2 visits per resident, against a typical 2.6 for libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people. Borrowing is 1.2 print items per resident, against a typical 3.7. It also spends less than most: $23 per resident, against a typical $40. How it compares ↓
Programs are almost all for children
93% of the 1,218 programs last year were for ages 11 and under, including about 20 a week for ages 0–5. Kids & programs ↓
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; Braswell Memorial Public Library serves 91,931 people in and around Rocky Mount, and its numbers cover all of them.
What’s behind Rocky Mount’s civic life grade
On community nonprofits and volunteering, Rocky Mount is ahead of 29% of U.S. towns, #110 of 234 in North Carolina. Rocky Mount is graded on two of the three inputs. Rocky Mount’s count of community nonprofits holds the grade up; the share of younger adults in volunteering groups pulls it down.
Most U.S. towns with similar household incomes ($42K–$69K) 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 →
281 community nonprofits are registered in Rocky Mount
5.2 per 1,000 residents, against a U.S. town median of 3.7. The largest group: human services.
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 (114 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town. 7 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
2.6%
2.6% of Rocky Mount’s Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 5.2% in the typical North Carolina 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 Rocky Mount’s residents live; 2022.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 1 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people across the U.S.
Braswell Memorial Public Library serves 91,931 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 17 items go out
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole Braswell Memorial Public Library system. The library’s own count.
More than half the print loans are kids’ books
143K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
34,351 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
About 22 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
Braswell Memorial Public Library, 727 N Grace St., Rocky Mount.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy. Good at every Braswell Memorial Public Library branch.
New in Rocky Mount? 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 $1.10 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Rocky Mount cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $40. Operating budget $2.2M.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $2.4M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $2.2M 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 43,497 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rocky Mount | Braswell Memorial Public Library | — | 62 | C |
| Dortches | 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. Braswell Memorial Public Library serves 91,931 people in and around Rocky Mount, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Rocky Mount.
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 Rocky Mount
Does Rocky Mount have a public library?
Yes. Braswell Memorial Public Library, 727 N Grace St., serves 91,931 people in and around Rocky Mount (the survey’s count) and is open about 62 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Braswell Memorial 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 Rocky Mount’s library?
It logged 1.2 visits and lent 1.6 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 2.6 visits for libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people.
What is Rocky Mount’s civic life grade?
C Rocky Mount is ahead of 29% of U.S. towns on civic life, #110 of 234 in North Carolina. 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 Rocky Mount.
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.