Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0Carson City’s library lends 2.2 print items per resident, against a typical 3.7 for libraries its size
Carson City Library serves 58,923 people in and around Carson City. Last year it lent 510K books, movies and e-books and logged 122K visits.
What stands out about Carson City Library
Read from the library’s own yearly report. The page puts what stands out first.
What’s behind Carson City’s civic life grade
On library visits, community nonprofits and volunteering, Carson City is ahead of 24% of U.S. towns, #9 of 16 in Nevada. All three inputs sit below most U.S. towns; Carson City’s count of community nonprofits comes closest to the middle.
Most U.S. towns with similar household incomes ($54K–$90K) 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 →
196 community nonprofits are registered in Carson City
3.4 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 (40 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town. 6 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
6.3%
6.3% of Carson City’s Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 7.0% in the typical Nevada 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 Carson City’s residents live; 2022.
74% of borrowing is digital
510K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
380,155 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
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.
Carson City Library serves 58,923 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 178 items go out
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole Carson City Library system. The library’s own count.
About 6 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
Carson City Library, 900 North Roop Street, Carson City.
No late fees. E-books and audiobooks from home. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy. Good at every Carson City Library branch.
New in Carson 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 $4.87 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Carson City cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $40. Operating budget $1.7M.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $8.1M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $1.7M budget.
Fine-free. No late fees on books returned late.
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 21,880 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carson City | Carson City Library fine-free | — | 55 | C− |
| Johnson Lane | None of its own | — | — | — unincorporated |
| Indian Hills | None of its own | — | — | — unincorporated |
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. Carson City Library serves 58,923 people in and around Carson City, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Carson 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 Carson City
Does Carson City have a public library?
Yes. Carson City Library, 900 North Roop Street, serves 58,923 people in and around Carson City (the survey’s count) and is open about 55 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Carson City Library fine-free? Does it lend e-books?
Yes to both: no late fees, and e-books, audiobooks and research databases with a card (the library’s 2024 survey report).
How busy is Carson City’s library?
It logged 2.1 visits and lent 8.7 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 2.6 visits for libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people.
What is Carson City’s civic life grade?
C− Carson City is ahead of 24% of U.S. towns on civic life, #9 of 16 in Nevada. 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 Carson 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.