Photo: Ichabod · CC BY-SA 3.0Gallatin’s library logs 1.5 visits per resident, against a typical 2.6 for libraries its size
Gallatin Public Library of Sumner County serves 47,090 people in and around Gallatin. Last year it lent 169K books, movies and e-books and logged 73K visits.
What stands out about Gallatin Public Library of Sumner County
Read from the library’s own yearly report. The page puts what stands out first.
What’s behind Gallatin’s civic life grade
On library visits, community nonprofits and volunteering, Gallatin is ahead of 27% of U.S. towns, #86 of 150 in Tennessee. Gallatin’s count of community nonprofits holds the grade up; library visits pull it down.
Most U.S. towns with similar household incomes ($58K–$97K) 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 →
182 community nonprofits are registered in Gallatin
3.8 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 (61 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town. 8 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
7.0%
7.0% of Gallatin’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 Gallatin’s residents live; 2022.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 3 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people across the U.S.
Gallatin Public Library of Sumner County serves 47,090 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 51 items go out
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole Gallatin Public Library of Sumner County system. The library’s own count.
More than half the print loans are kids’ books
169K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
52,083 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
Gallatin Public Library of Sumner County, 123 East Main Street, Gallatin.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Loans renew on their own if no one’s waiting. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy. Good at every Gallatin Public Library of Sumner County branch.
New in Gallatin? 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 $4.49 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Gallatin cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $40. Operating budget $671K.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $3M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $671K 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 33,087 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hendersonville | Hendersonville Public Library of Sumner County | 2.6 | 40 | C |
| Gallatin | Gallatin Public Library of Sumner County | — | 44 | C |
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. Gallatin Public Library of Sumner County serves 47,090 people in and around Gallatin, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Gallatin.
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 Gallatin
Does Gallatin have a public library?
Yes. Gallatin Public Library of Sumner County, 123 East Main Street, serves 47,090 people in and around Gallatin (the survey’s count) and is open about 44 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Gallatin Public Library of Sumner County 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 Gallatin’s library?
It logged 1.5 visits and lent 3.6 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 2.6 visits for libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people.
What is Gallatin’s civic life grade?
C Gallatin is ahead of 27% of U.S. towns on civic life, #86 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 Gallatin.
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.