Hennen's American Public Library Rating Index HAPLR Index tm

The 2nd edition of Hennen's American Public Library Ratings (HAPLR) Index which rates all of America's public libraries is out and the St. Charles City-County Library District is once again rated as one of the top libraries in the nation! Of the 90 libraries in America serving populations of 250,000 - 499,999, the St. Charles City-County Library District is rated #3. A ranking of all libraries may be found in Hennen's website (http://www.haplr-index.com).

The St. Charles City-County Library District was one of only two libraries in Missouri that made it into the top ten rating. St. Louis County Library was rated 9th for libraries serving 500,000+. The St. Charles City-County Library District and St. Louis County Library have a reciprocal lending agreement so residents of both counties may use the collections of two of the top libraries in Missouri.

Carl R. Sandstedt, Director of the St. Charles City-County Library District, was pleased with the rating. "Like lots of lists, this one covers some things more than others. I like to think that it tracks value. Putting a high portion of money into materials means that people will have plenty of books to read. Cover the basics and do it well and people will still beat a path to your door."

Thomas J. Hennen Jr. who is the administrator of the Waukesha County Federated Library System in Wisconsin created the HAPLR Index. In the 2nd edition of the Index, Hennen uses 1997 statistic collected by the Federal State Cooperative System. The focus of the index is on factors that effect public service such as circulation, staffing levels, materials, reference service, and funding levels. Fifteen measures of library service were tabulated for 8,946 libraries in the United States. The measures were weighted so the most emphasis was placed on lower cost per circulation, visits per capita, and revenue per capita. Emphasis was also placed on the percentage of the budget spent on materials, dollars spent per capita on materials, staff available to serve the public, and circulation per capita. The libraries were given scores and divided into 10 population categories. The St. Charles City-County Library District received a score of 809 out of 1000 points, which placed it in the 97th percentile.

The HAPLR Index is a quantitative measure of selected areas of library service. "There are areas that the ratings don't cover, primarily commitment to new technologies like Internet support," said Sandstedt. "We think we do pretty well there also, but the profession needs to develop new methods that adequately track total customer usage, including the use of library licensed materials that are available on-line in the home & customer satisfaction. We're ready to compete on all fronts whether it's qualitative, quantitative or value measures. We're proud of our library and it's fine staff and are proactively planning for an even brighter future."

Last updated 10/7/99 - jfb