Photo: GatewayPolitics · CC BY-SA 4.0Clarksville’s library logs 1 visits per resident, against a typical 2.1 for libraries its size
Clarksville Montgomery County Public Library serves 239,872 people in and around Clarksville. Last year it lent 672K books, movies and e-books and logged 237K visits.
What Clarksville’s library is like
Open about 66 hours a week
The Clarksville branch is open about 66 hours a week, averaged over the year. The building ↓
Runs on less money than most
Clarksville Montgomery County Public Library spends $12 per resident, less than 96% of similar-size libraries (typical: $36). What your card is worth ↓
Kids’ books are most of what goes out
Children’s books and media make up 59% of print loans. Per resident, kids’ borrowing is lower than at 68% of similar-size libraries, so the high share mostly reflects light borrowing by adults. What people borrow ↓
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; Clarksville Montgomery County Public Library serves 239,872 people in and around Clarksville, and its numbers cover all of them.
What’s behind Clarksville’s civic life grade
On community nonprofits and volunteering, Clarksville is ahead of 29% of U.S. towns, #82 of 150 in Tennessee. Among the 385 U.S. cities over 100,000 we grade, it ranks #176. Clarksville is graded on two of the three inputs. Both inputs sit below most U.S. towns; the share of younger adults in volunteering groups comes closest to the middle.
Most U.S. towns with similar household incomes ($52K–$87K) 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 →
455 community nonprofits are registered in Clarksville
2.6 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 (152 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town. 24 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
7.4%
7.4% of Clarksville’s Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 6.7% in the typical Tennessee 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 Clarksville’s residents live; 2022.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 1 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 100,000+ people across the U.S.
Clarksville Montgomery County Public Library serves 239,872 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 100,000+.
Every hour the doors are open, about 196 items go out
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole Clarksville Montgomery County Public Library system. The library’s own count.
More than half the print loans are kids’ books
672K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
222,117 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. 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
Clarksville Montgomery County Public Library, 350 Pageant Lane, Suite 501, Clarksville.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy. Good at every Clarksville Montgomery County Public Library branch.
New in Clarksville? 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 $3.55 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Clarksville cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $36. Operating budget $2.9M.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $1M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $2.9M 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 92,803 cardholders ÷ 12.
What this data can and can’t tell you
From the Public Libraries Survey, fiscal year 2024.
- System-wide. Clarksville Montgomery County Public Library serves 239,872 people in and around Clarksville, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Clarksville.
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 Clarksville
Does Clarksville have a public library?
Yes. Clarksville Montgomery County Public Library, 350 Pageant Lane, Suite 501, serves 239,872 people in and around Clarksville (the survey’s count) and is open about 66 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Clarksville Montgomery 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 Clarksville’s library?
It logged 1.0 visits and lent 2.8 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 2.1 visits for libraries serving 100,000+ people.
What is Clarksville’s civic life grade?
C Clarksville is ahead of 29% of U.S. towns on civic life, #82 of 150 in Tennessee. 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 Clarksville.
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.