Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 4.0Spencer’s library logs 0.7 visits per resident, against a typical 3 for libraries its size
Burritt Memorial Library serves 6,493 people in and around Spencer. Last year it lent 12K books, movies and e-books and logged 4,622 visits.
What Spencer’s library is like
Burritt Memorial Library is used less than most libraries its size
Burritt Memorial Library records 0.7 visits per resident, against a typical 3 for libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000 people. Borrowing is 1.5 print items per resident, against a typical 3.8. It also spends less than most: $5 per resident, against a typical $43. How it compares ↓
Few programs for a library this size
Burritt Memorial Library offered 8 programs last year, 1.2 per 1,000 residents against a typical 34. Kids & programs ↓
Runs on less money than most
Burritt Memorial Library spends $5 per resident, less than 99% of similar-size libraries (typical: $43). 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; Burritt Memorial Library serves 6,493 people in and around Spencer, and its numbers cover all of them.
What’s behind Spencer’s civic life grade
On community nonprofits and volunteering, Spencer is ahead of 9% of U.S. towns. Spencer 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.
Burritt Memorial Library spends $5 per resident, against a typical $43 for libraries its size.
Most U.S. towns with similar household incomes ($35K–$58K) 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 →
3 community nonprofits are registered in Spencer
1.8 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 (1 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town.
5.8%
5.8% of Spencer’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 Spencer’s residents live; 2022.
Below most similar-size libraries on all 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000 people across the U.S.
Burritt Memorial Library serves 6,493 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 7 items go out
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole Burritt Memorial Library system. The library’s own count.
More than half the print loans are kids’ books
12K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
2,462 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
8 programs a year
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
Burritt Memorial Library, 427 College Street, Spencer.
No late fees. E-books and audiobooks from home. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy. Good at every Burritt Memorial Library branch.
New in Spencer? 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 $5.12 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Spencer cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $43. Operating budget $35K.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $180K worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $35K 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 2,138 cardholders ÷ 12.
What this data can and can’t tell you
From the Public Libraries Survey, fiscal year 2024.
- System-wide. Burritt Memorial Library serves 6,493 people in and around Spencer, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Spencer.
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 Spencer
Does Spencer have a public library?
Yes. Burritt Memorial Library, 427 College Street, serves 6,493 people in and around Spencer (the survey’s count) and is open about 32 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Burritt Memorial 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 Spencer’s library?
It logged 0.7 visits and lent 1.9 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3 visits for libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000 people.
What is Spencer’s civic life grade?
D Spencer is ahead of 9% of U.S. towns on civic life. 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 Spencer.
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.