Photo: Renelibrary · CC BY-SA 4.0Wylie’s library lends 10 print items per resident, against a typical 3.7 for libraries its size
Rita & Truett Smith Public Library serves Wylie’s 61,078 residents. Last year it lent 724K books, movies and e-books and logged 211K visits.
What Wylie’s library is like
More library cards than residents
65,990 cards for 61,078 people. Cards held by people from outside the service area count too, so the total can pass the population. At the typical library serving 25,000 to 100,000 people, it’s 39%. How it compares ↓
More than half the print loans are for kids
Children’s books and media are 76% of print loans, and kids’ borrowing per resident is higher than at 97% of similar-size libraries. That works out to about 28 items per child in Wylie last year. Kids & programs ↓
Top 10% in Texas for kids’ borrowing
Wylie ranks #7 of 183 Texas towns with a library of their own for children’s items borrowed per child. How it compares ↓
Wylie is a town of borrowers
Rita & Truett Smith Public Library lends 10 print items per resident, against a typical 3.7 for libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people, more than 90% of similar-size libraries. Each item on the shelves went out about 4.8 times last year. What people borrow ↓
The shelves work hard
Each of the 126,000 items on the shelves went out about 4.8 times last year, on average. What people borrow ↓
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 Wylie’s civic life grade
On library visits, community nonprofits and volunteering, Wylie is ahead of 32% of U.S. towns, #224 of 539 in Texas. Library visits hold the grade up; Wylie’s count of community nonprofits pulls it down.
Most U.S. towns with similar household incomes ($90K–$149K) 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 →
180 community nonprofits are registered in Wylie
3.0 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 (75 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town. 12 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
6.6%
6.6% of Wylie’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 Wylie’s residents live; 2022.
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 Wylie last year.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 6 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people across the U.S.
Rita & Truett Smith Public Library serves 61,078 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 271 items go out
Fiscal year 2024. The library’s own count.
More than half the print loans are kids’ books
724K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
Each of the 126K books and other items on the shelves went out about 4.8 times last year, on average.
114,957 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
Find it
Rita & Truett Smith Public Library, 300 Country Club Dr Bldg 300, Wylie.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Loans renew on their own if no one’s waiting. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy.
New in Wylie? 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 $4.30 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Wylie cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $40. Operating budget $2.3M.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $1M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $2.3M 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 65,990 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.
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.
- 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 Wylie
Does Wylie have a public library?
Yes. Rita & Truett Smith Public Library, 300 Country Club Dr Bldg 300, serves Wylie’s 61,078 residents (the survey’s count) and is open about 51 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Rita & Truett Smith 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 Wylie’s library?
It logged 3.5 visits and lent 11.9 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 2.6 visits for libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people.
What is Wylie’s civic life grade?
C Wylie is ahead of 32% of U.S. towns on civic life, #224 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 Wylie.
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.