Rapid City Public Library
Rapid City Public Library is a municipal public library system based in Rapid City (Pennington County), South Dakota, serving a legal service area of 112,937 residents from a single building and one bookmobile. Among the 101 profiled systems in South Dakota, it ranks second for population served, second for total visits, second for physical checkouts and second for operating spending.
Against the median system of its size class, it records 86% more physical checkouts per resident and 35% fewer public computers per resident.
Rapid City against the 360 systems of its size class
Rapid City, building by building
The single building covers 50,000 square feet, 0.44 square feet per resident against a median of 0.51 for the size class. It is open 68.2 hours a week.
| Building | Type | Town | Hours a week | Floor area, sq ft |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rapid City Public Library | Central library | Rapid City | 68.2 | 50,000 |
| Rapid City Public Library Bookmobile | Bookmobile | Rapid City | 50.1 |
Rapid City in numbers, FY 2024
- Visits
- 290,691
- Physical checkouts
- 639,617
- …of children's materials
- 291,694
- Electronic checkouts
- 253,000
- …of e-books
- 104,232
- …of e-audio
- 118,474
- Registered users
- 34,309
- Program sessions
- 575
- Program attendance
- 23,088
- Print volumes
- 132,122
- Audio items (physical)
- 3,875
- Video items (physical)
- 21,450
- Public computers
- 42
- Public service hours, all outlets
- 4,949
- Paid staff (full-time equivalent)
- 40.2
- Operating spending
- $4.1 million
- …on books and other materials
- $698,631
- Overdue fines on print items
- not charged
Where Rapid City gets its operating money
Operating revenue came to $4.4 million, or $39.06 per resident. The local-government share is close to the combined share for the 101 profiled systems in South Dakota. No federal operating revenue was reported.
- Local government
- State
- Federal
- Other (fines, fees, gifts, grants)
Rapid City since FY 2019
Visits were 30% below the FY 2019 count of 416,806 (size-class median: −29%). Physical checkouts moved 21% up over the same span.
- Visits
- Physical checkouts
Who comes to Rapid City programs
Programs for children up to age 11 drew 54% of all program attendance, and sessions averaged 40 people each.
Municipal libraries of similar size in other states
Of these six systems, two record more visits per resident than this one. The highest checkout rate in the group belongs to Provo City Library in Utah.
| System | Based in | Residents | Visits per resident | Checkouts per resident | Spending per resident |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Samuel S. Pollard Memorial Library | Lowell, MA | 113,608 | 0.93 | 0.93 | $16.71 |
| Buckeye Public Library | Buckeye, AZ | 113,349 | 1.20 | 2.03 | $21.46 |
| Provo City Library | Provo, UT | 113,343 | 4.69 | 9.61 | $49.44 |
| Peoria Public Library | Peoria, IL | 113,150 | 2.59 | 4.75 | $61.43 |
| Richmond Public Library | Richmond, CA | 112,735 | 0.54 | 0.83 | $58.29 |
| Beaumont Public Library System | Beaumont, TX | 112,193 | 2.28 | 1.82 | $22.56 |
Nearest in size within South Dakota
- Siouxland Libraries · Sioux Falls · 255,913 residents
- K.o. Lee Aberdeen Public Library · Aberdeen · 28,110 residents
- Brookings Public Library · Brookings · 24,312 residents
- Watertown Regional Library · Watertown · 23,230 residents