Photo: Adavyd · CC BY-SA 4.0Brenham’s library lends 5 print items per resident, against a typical 3.9 for libraries its size
Nancy Carol Roberts Memorial Library serves Brenham’s 19,142 residents. Last year it lent 113K books, movies and e-books and logged 64K visits.
What stands out about Brenham’s library
Read from the library’s own yearly report. The page puts what stands out first.
What’s behind Brenham’s civic life grade
On library visits, community nonprofits and volunteering, Brenham is ahead of 77% of U.S. towns, #47 of 539 in Texas. Brenham’s count of community nonprofits holds the grade up; library visits pull it down.
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 →
159 community nonprofits are registered in Brenham
8.5 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 (55 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town. 6 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
8.4%
8.4% of Brenham’s Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 5.7% in the typical Texas 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 Brenham’s residents live; 2022.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 5 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000 people across the U.S.
Nancy Carol Roberts Memorial Library serves 19,142 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 55 items go out
Fiscal year 2024. The library’s own count.
More than half the print loans are kids’ books
113K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
Each of the 49K books and other items on the shelves went out about 1.9 times last year, on average.
17,574 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
About 3 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 Brenham last year.
Find it
Nancy Carol Roberts Memorial Library, 100 Martin Luther King Jr Pkwy, Brenham.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Loans renew on their own if no one’s waiting. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy.
New in Brenham? 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 $3.44 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Brenham cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $43. Operating budget $528K.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $1.8M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $528K 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 23,307 cardholders ÷ 12.
What this data can and can’t tell you
From the Public Libraries Survey, fiscal year 2024.
- The library’s own count. Libraries report their own visits, loans and programs. A library that didn’t respond keeps its address and hours here, with no numbers.
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 Brenham
Does Brenham have a public library?
Yes. Nancy Carol Roberts Memorial Library, 100 Martin Luther King Jr Pkwy, serves Brenham’s 19,142 residents (the survey’s count) and is open about 40 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Nancy Carol Roberts Memorial 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 Brenham’s library?
It logged 3.4 visits and lent 5.9 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3.1 visits for libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000 people.
What is Brenham’s civic life grade?
A− Brenham is ahead of 77% of U.S. towns on civic life, #47 of 539 in Texas. 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 Brenham.
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.