Rating the local libraries

By ERIC LINDEN

The Oak Park Public Library delivers slightly better service than River
Forest's, and they both top Forest Park's.

At least that's the opinion of the third annual Hennen's American Public
Library Ratings, which are based on federal data and weighted in 15
factors that are supposed to be important to libraries--regarding their
service and community support.

The Hennen ratings might remind people of the highly argued lists
published frequently as the year 2000 turned. But the Hennen list is
designed to show that data matter and not just subjective opinions like
the Millennium lists that ranked everything from movies to U.S.
Presidents to athletes. The library rankings, published again this year
in the American Libraries magazine, the publication of the American
Libraries Association, also attempt, Hennen said, to identify the best
public libraries in America.

"Statistics cannot do it alone, but they are part of the answer," Hennen
said in an announcement of the 2000 library rankings, in which the
maximum score is 1,000 and the minimum is 1. Hennen said most libraries
score between 260 and 730. The average score for a public library in
Cook County is 596, and the average score in Illinois is 534, which
ranked the state 14th in the country.

The Forest Park Public Library at 7555 W. Jackson Blvd. scored a 549.
The River Forest public library at 735 Lathrop Ave. received a 683. The
Oak Park Public Library has its main branch at 834 Lake St., the Dole
Branch at 255 Augusta St. and the Maze Branch at 845 S. Gunderson St.,
and the system received a Hennen rating of 691.

The rankings focus mainly on circulation, staffing, materials, reference
service and funding levels. And specifically, the categories used to
determine a library's score are expenditure per capita, percent of the
budget going to library materials, spending on materials per capita,
full-time library staff per 1,000 of population, periodicals per 1,000
residents, print volumes per capita, cost per circulation, library
visits per capita, turnover of library collection, circulation per
full-time-equivalent staff hour, circulation per capita, reference per
capita, circulation per hour, visits per hour and circulation per visit.

In other words, if a library provides good services and the community
provides the financial resources, the higher a library will score.

According to the Hennen service, Here's how the villages' libraries and
the ones in surrounding communities scored.
 

Berwyn, 593
Cicero, 380
Elmwood Park, 532
Forest Park, 549
Maywood, 384
Melrose Park, 406
North Riverside, 669
Oak Park, 691
River Forest, 683
River Grove, 300

Chicago was not rated by the rankings, and the highest public library
score in Cook County was the 865 received by north suburban Palatine,
while the highest score in Illinois was the 887 received by the
Naperville Public Library in DuPage County. Future ratings for the local
libraries could change based on recent and future library activity.

Thanks to approval of a property tax increase by local voters, the Oak
Park library system soon will build a new and larger main library and
also will add improvements to the Maze branch. Also in Oak Park, work is
proposed to repair and expand the Dole branch. New libraries also are on
the way in Elmwood Park and Melrose Park. Maywood recently had a new
public library built, but it was not reflected in the 2000 Hennen
rankings.

The Hennen index does not include data on audio and video collections,
or interlibrary loans, among other items that could have been
calculated. Also, "most prominently absent," Hennen said, is any
reflection of either electronic use or Internet service.

"While such measures would have been desirable, the ... data simply are
simply not sufficient for such comparisons at this time," Hennen said.
The group added that as such technology uses increase they probably will
be included in future rankings.

"The Hennen rankings reward and validate the hard work that librarians
do to make their libraries central to the quality of life in their
communities," said Leonard Kniffel, editor of American Libraries
magazine. "I'm pleased to be able to present them in American Libraries
(magazine)."