PENNSYLVANIA State libraries rank 40th in survey
Ohio topped the list.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Public libraries in the state ranked 40th in a national survey last year, which critics say is an improvement over the year before but is still unacceptable for the state where the first lending library was born.
Pennsylvania scored 424 out of a possible 1,000 in the Hennen's American Public Library Ratings for 2002, which ranked the state three places higher than 2001. Ohio scored 713 to secure the top spot.
The report ranks libraries based on criteria including staffing, circulation and collections and divides libraries based on population and size. The system was created five years ago by Thomas J. Hennen Jr., director of the Waukesha, Wis.-based Federated Library System. It's believed to be the only national ranking of its kind in the country.
A positive step
Library officials across the state said the improvement in the state's ranking was a small, but positive step.
"Pennsylvania is and historically has been the lab for what can be done without resources and what can be done with resources," Glenn Miller, director of the Pennsylvania Library Association, told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
Miller said the Hennen report doesn't take into account many things that libraries offer, including outreach programs, reference services and other programs. But still, he said, there is only so much public libraries in the state can do with what they have.
"We can safely say we are nowhere near where Pennsylvania should be in terms of providing services. ... To be somewhere close to the national average, we'd need $120 million from the state," Miller said.
State's best library
The Hennen report also ranks libraries within the state. In Westmoreland County, Ligonier Valley Library was ranked No. 1, scoring 621 out of 1,000 points.
But Janet Hudson, Ligonier's director, said she's worried that cuts in the new state budget will make things more difficult for libraries who have seen improvement. The new budget reduces library support from $75 million to $47.4 million.
"The sad thing is things have been so great. ... For the first time I can remember since 1976, we had so many teenagers in the library we had to put them in the basement because it was overflowing. We have a new teen collection and a teen librarian," she said.
XOn the Net: Hennen's American Public Library Ratings: www.haplr-index.com