Photo: AppalachianCentrist · CC BY-SA 4.0Kingsport’s library runs 10 programs per 1,000 residents, against a typical 14 for libraries its size
Kingsport Public Library serves Kingsport’s 56,704 residents. Last year it lent 329K books, movies and e-books and logged 122K visits.
What Kingsport’s library is like
Most of Kingsport’s borrowing is digital
E-books, e-audiobooks and streaming make up 50% of loans, more per resident than at 87% of similar-size libraries. Print still makes up 50%, much of it kids’ books. What people borrow ↓
Still charges late fines, unlike its neighbors
Kingsport Public Library charges late fines on some overdue items. All three libraries in neighboring towns have dropped them. What your card is worth ↓
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.
What’s behind Kingsport’s civic life grade
On library visits, community nonprofits and volunteering, Kingsport is ahead of 38% of U.S. towns, #64 of 150 in Tennessee. Kingsport’s count of community nonprofits holds the grade up; library visits pull it down.
Most U.S. towns with similar household incomes ($39K–$66K) 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 →
225 community nonprofits are registered in Kingsport
4.0 per 1,000 residents, against a U.S. town median of 3.7. The largest group: civic groups, clubs & veterans.
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 (70 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town. 10 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
7.4%
7.4% of Kingsport’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 Kingsport’s residents live; 2022.
50% of borrowing is digital
329K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
Each of the 107K books and other items on the shelves went out about 1.5 times last year, on average.
166,152 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 1 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people across the U.S.
Kingsport Public Library serves 56,704 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 104 items go out
Fiscal year 2024. The library’s own count.
About 6 kids’ programs a week
Story times, clubs, classes and events, by who they’re for.
Programs last year by age group
story times and programs a week for ages 0–5, on average.
children’s books and media borrowed per child under 18 in Kingsport last year.
Find it
Kingsport Public Library, 400 Broad Street, Kingsport.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Loans renew on their own if no one’s waiting. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy.
New in Kingsport? 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 $3.69 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Kingsport cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $40. Operating budget $1.3M.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $5M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $1.3M 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 12,869 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kingsport | Kingsport Public Library | 5.8 | 61 | C+ |
| Mount Carmel | Mt. Carmel Library fine-free | 1.6 | 44 | D− |
| Bloomingdale | Bloomingdale Branch Library fine-free | — | 48 | — unincorporated |
| Sullivan Gardens | Sullivan Gardens Branch Library fine-free | — | 39 | — unincorporated |
| Colonial Heights | None of its own | — | — | — unincorporated |
| Orebank | None of its own | — | — | — under 1,000 residents |
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.
- Visits are a typical-week estimate. Kingsport Public Library counted one typical week and multiplied by 52, as the survey allows.
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 Kingsport
Does Kingsport have a public library?
Yes. Kingsport Public Library, 400 Broad Street, serves Kingsport’s 56,704 residents (the survey’s count) and is open about 61 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Kingsport 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 Kingsport’s library?
It logged 2.2 visits and lent 5.8 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 2.6 visits for libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people.
What is Kingsport’s civic life grade?
C+ Kingsport is ahead of 38% of U.S. towns on civic life, #64 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 Kingsport.
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.