Hagood Mill · Photo: Bill Fitzpatrick · CC BY-SA 3.0Pickens’ library logs 2.4 visits per resident, against a typical 2.1 for libraries its size
Pickens County Library System serves 131,404 people in and around Pickens. Last year it lent 335K print books and media and logged 318K visits.
What stands out about Village Branch Library
Read from the library’s own yearly report. The page puts what stands out first.
What’s behind Pickens’ civic life grade
On community nonprofits and volunteering, Pickens is ahead of 16% of U.S. towns, #57 of 102 in South Carolina. Pickens is graded on two of the three inputs. Both inputs sit below most U.S. towns; Pickens’ count of community nonprofits comes closest to the middle.
Most U.S. towns with similar household incomes ($41K–$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 →
10 community nonprofits are registered in Pickens
3.1 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 (6 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town.
5.1%
5.1% of Pickens’ Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 4.4% in the typical South 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 Pickens’ residents live; 2022.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 4 of 7 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 100,000+ people across the U.S.
Pickens County Library System serves 131,404 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 100,000+.
Every hour the doors are open, about 29 items go out
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole Pickens County Library System system. The library’s own count.
Almost half the print loans are kids’ books
335K print loans last year. The library didn’t report its e-book and e-audiobook loans.
Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
About 13 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
Village Branch Library, 124 North Catherine Street, Pickens.
No late fees. E-books and audiobooks from home. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy. Good at every Pickens County Library System branch.
New in Pickens? 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 $1.48 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Pickens cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $36. Operating budget $3.7M.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $5.4M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $3.7M 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 112,487 cardholders ÷ 12.
What this data can and can’t tell you
From the Public Libraries Survey, fiscal year 2024.
- Digital loans not reported. The library didn’t report e-book loans, so borrowing here is print only.
- System-wide. Pickens County Library System serves 131,404 people in and around Pickens, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Pickens.
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 Pickens
Does Pickens have a public library?
Yes. Pickens County Library System, 124 North Catherine Street, serves 131,404 people in and around Pickens (the survey’s count) and is open about 49 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Pickens County Library System 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 Pickens’ library?
It logged 2.4 visits and lent 2.5 print items per resident in 2024, against a typical 2.1 visits for libraries serving 100,000+ people.
What is Pickens’ civic life grade?
C− Pickens is ahead of 16% of U.S. towns on civic life, #57 of 102 in South 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 Pickens.
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.