librarysystems

Harris County Public Library

Houston, TexasHarris CountyCounty libraryLarge cityFiscal year October 2023 to September 2024

Harris County Public Library is a county public library system based in Houston (Harris County), Texas, serving a legal service area of 2,281,173 residents through 28 library buildings and four bookmobiles. Of all systems profiled nationwide, it ranks third for electronic checkouts, seventh for public computers and tenth for population served.

Among profiled systems in Texas, it ranks first for physical checkouts, first for bookmobiles in service, third for total visits and third for print volumes. Among profiled systems serving 1 million or more residents, it ranks first for local government's share of operating revenue and records the fourth-largest gain in physical checkouts since FY 2019 and the ninth-smallest decline in visits since FY 2019, but ranks last for library floor space per resident and second-lowest for operating spending per resident.

Compare with similar-size systemsSystems serving 1 million or more

Harris County against the 35 systems of its size class

size-class median (50th percentile) · spine height = percentile within the class1.11Visitsper resident13th percentile3.58Checkoutsper resident59th percentile$16.75Spendingper resident4th percentile0.66Print volumesper resident16th percentile7.1Computersper 10,000 people67th percentile43.2Open hoursper outlet a week32nd percentile1.9Staff (FTE)per 10,000 people7th percentile
Gold tick: size-class medianVisits per resident1.1113th pct.Checkouts per resident3.5859th pct.Spending per resident$16.754th pct.Print volumes per resident0.6616th pct.Computers per 10,000 people7.167th pct.Open hours per outlet a week43.232nd pct.Staff (FTE) per 10,000 people1.97th pct.

How the measures and percentiles are calculated

Harris County since FY 2019

Visits were 26% below the FY 2019 count of 3.4 million (size-class median: −34%). Physical checkouts moved 5% up over the same span.

FY 2019 = 10060708090100110120FY 2019FY 2023FY 2024
FY 2019 = 10060708090100110120FY 2019FY 2023FY 2024
  • Visits
  • Physical checkouts

Nearest in size within Texas

All profiled systems in Texas

Harris County in numbers, FY 2024

Visits
2,526,017
Physical checkouts
8,161,367
…of children's materials
4,243,432
Electronic checkouts
9,517,766
…of e-books
4,024,547
…of e-audio
4,621,629
Registered users
2,308,724
Print volumes
1,494,589
Audio items (physical)
28,920
Video items (physical)
110,446
Public computers
1,617
Public service hours, all outlets
71,933
Paid staff (full-time equivalent)
424.6
Operating spending
$38.2 million
…on books and other materials
$6.5 million
Overdue fines on print items
not charged

Where Harris County gets its operating money

Operating revenue came to $42.5 million, or $18.64 per resident. The local-government share sits 4 percentage points above the combined share for the 503 profiled systems in Texas.

This system100%All profiled systems in Texas96%
This system100%All profiled systems in Texas96%
  • Local government
  • State
  • Federal
  • Other (fines, fees, gifts, grants)

Harris County, building by building

The 28 buildings cover 475,143 square feet in total, 0.21 square feet per resident against a median of 0.39 for the size class. The largest building is Lone Star College-Tomball Community Library at 72,000 square feet; the smallest is Baldwin Boettcher Branch Library at 225. The longest hours are at Cy-Fair College, 69 a week.

BuildingTypeTownHours a weekFloor area, sq ft
Aldine Branch LibraryBranchHouston4713,268
Atascocita Branch LibraryBranchHumble4712,000
Baldwin Boettcher Branch LibraryBranchHumble42225
Barbara Bush Branch LibraryBranchSpring5032,000
Clear Lake City-County Freeman Branch LibraryBranchHouston5042,000
Crosby-Edith Fae Cook Cole Branch LibraryBranchCrosby4710,500
Cy-Fair CollegeBranchCypress6961,839
Evelyn Meador Branch LibraryBranchSeabrook4721,100
Fairbanks Branch LibraryBranchHouston477,247
Galena Park Branch LibraryBranchGalena Park476,900
Hcpl Technology Center at Finnegan ParkBranchHouston40275
Hcpl Technology Center at Lincoln ParkBranchHouston40552
High Meadows Branch LibraryBranchHouston479,500
Jacinto City Branch LibraryBranchHouston475,880
Katherine Tyra/Bear Creek Branch LibraryBranchHouston4712,000
Katy Branch LibraryBranchKaty4715,000
Kingwood Branch LibraryBranchKingwood5030,000
LA Porte Branch LibraryBranchLA Porte4723,357
Lone Star College-Tomball Community LibraryBranchTomball6572,000
Maud Smith Marks Branch LibraryBranchKaty4712,300
North Channel Branch LibraryBranchHouston4714,000
Northwest Branch LibraryBranchCypress4712,000
Octavia Fields Branch LibraryBranchHumble4715,000
Parker Williams Branch LibraryBranchHouston4720,000
South Houston Branch LibraryBranchSouth Houston476,900
Spring Branch LibraryBranchHouston4710,500
Stratford Branch LibraryBranchHighlands432,700
West University Branch LibraryBranchHouston476,100
Curiosity CruiserBookmobileHouston20
Curiosity CruiserBookmobileHouston20
Curiosity CruiserBookmobileHouston20
Curiosity CruiserBookmobileHouston20

County libraries of similar size in other states

All six of these systems record more visits per resident than this one. The highest checkout rate in the group belongs to Orange County Public Libraries in California.

SystemBased inResidentsVisits per residentCheckouts per residentSpending per resident
LA County LibraryDowney, CA3,248,2851.701.70$60.09
Miami-Dade Public Library SystemMiami, FL2,406,2991.521.24$38.92
Queens Borough Public LibraryJamaica, NY2,405,4642.712.64$62.46
Broward County Libraries DivisionFort Lauderdale, FL1,776,2713.031.69$44.10
Orange County Public LibrariesSanta Ana, CA1,653,7182.104.68$38.92
Hillsborough County Public Library CooperativeTampa, FL1,559,6781.622.32$37.59