Photo: Larry D. Moore · CC BY 4.0Kerrville’s library logs 4.8 visits per resident, against a typical 3.1 for libraries its size
Butt-Holdsworth Memorial Library serves 24,930 people in and around Kerrville from 2 locations. Last year it lent 126K books, movies and e-books and logged 119K visits.
What stands out about Butt-Holdsworth Memorial Library
Read from the library’s own yearly report. The page puts what stands out first.
What’s behind Kerrville’s civic life grade
On library visits, community nonprofits and volunteering, Kerrville is ahead of 64% of U.S. towns, #87 of 539 in Texas. Kerrville’s count of community nonprofits holds the grade up; the share of younger adults in volunteering groups pulls 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 →
161 community nonprofits are registered in Kerrville
6.5 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 (59 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town. 1 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
5.8%
5.8% of Kerrville’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 Kerrville’s residents live; 2022.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 2 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000 people across the U.S.
Butt-Holdsworth Memorial Library serves 24,930 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 38 items go out
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole Butt-Holdsworth Memorial Library system. The library’s own count.
Mostly books and media off the shelf
126K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
21,763 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, 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.
2 places to borrow in Kerrville
Butt-Holdsworth Memorial Library, 505 Water St., Kerrville.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Loans renew on their own if no one’s waiting. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy. Good at every Butt-Holdsworth Memorial Library branch.
New in Kerrville? The Handbook →Hours are the survey’s yearly average. Check the library’s own site for today’s hours.
Other Butt-Holdsworth Memorial Library branches in Kerrville
For every $1 it spends, the library lends about $2.18 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Kerrville cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $43. Operating budget $917K.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $2M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $917K 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 9,471 cardholders ÷ 12.
What this data can and can’t tell you
From the Public Libraries Survey, fiscal year 2024.
- System-wide. Butt-Holdsworth Memorial Library serves 24,930 people in and around Kerrville, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Kerrville.
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 Kerrville
Does Kerrville have a public library?
Yes. Butt-Holdsworth Memorial Library, 505 Water St., serves 24,930 people in and around Kerrville (the survey’s count) and is open about 46 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Butt-Holdsworth 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 Kerrville’s library?
It logged 4.8 visits and lent 5.0 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3.1 visits for libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000 people.
What is Kerrville’s civic life grade?
B Kerrville is ahead of 64% of U.S. towns on civic life, #87 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 Kerrville.
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.