PUBLIC LIBRARY RATINGS

(Redirected from HAPLR (Hennen\'s American Public Library Ratings))

Nominated for deletion: see
There are several national systems for rating the quality of public libraries

Contents

United States

Criticism

Australia and New Zealand

Great Britain

Germany

Authors

References

United States

'Hennen’s American Public Library Ratings Information' is published annually in the November edition of 'American Libraries', and rates over 9,000 public libraries in the United States. HAPLR relies on the latest data from the 'Federal State Cooperative Service' [1]. Libraries are rated, scored and ranked on 15 input and output measures with comparisons in broad population categories. HAPLR provides a comparative rating system that librarians, trustees and the public can use to improve and extend library services.The "Hennen’s American Public Library Ratings" [2](HAPLR) have gained media notice in hundreds of communities in the years since their first publication in 'American Libraries' magazine, the official publication of the American Library Association.
The latest public library statistics were published by the 'National Center for Educational Statistics' [3] in July of 2006. The HAPLR ratings receive newspaper, magazine and television coverage all over the country.

Criticism

Devising a rating system for public service institutions is problematic, and the HAPLR ratings have drawn significant criticism from members of the library community.
'Oregon State Librarian' Jim Scheppke notes that the statistics that HAPLR relies on are misleading because they were not gathered for the purpose Hennen puts them; and that HAPLR relies too much on output measures, such as circulation, funding, etc. and not on input measures, such as open hours and patron satisfaction.
Keith Curry Lance and Marti Cox, both of the 'Library Research Service', take issue with HAPLR’s reasoning backwards from statistics to conclusion, point out the redundancy of HAPLR’s statistical categories, and question its arbitrary system of weighting criteria.
Most recently, Elizabeth Nelson of 'Dominican University'’s School of Library and Information Science won the 2006 Library School Student Writing Award for her article “Library Statistics and the HAPLR Index.” In her article, Nelson also questions HAPLR’s weighting of factors, but also questions HAPLR’s failure to account for local factors (such as a library’s mission) in measuring a library’s success, the index’s failure to measure computer and Internet usage, and its lack of focus of on newer methods of evaluation, such as customer satisfaction or return on investment.

Australia and New Zealand

HAPLR is the first of its kind for libraries in the United States. There is some interest in developing a similar index in Australia and New Zealand, because of an article on the topic in APLIS, the Australasian Public Library and Information Science magazine.

Great Britain

Great Britain adopted national standards, and in 2000 the Audit Commission began publishing both a summary annual reports of library conditions and individualized ratings of libraries. Audit Commission personnel base the reports on statistical data, long-range plans, local government commitment to the library, and a site visit. The Audit Commission is an independent body. Every library is assigned a score. This is not quite the same thing as the HAPLR Index, but close. See their site: http://www.bestvalueinspections.gov.uk/

Germany

The closest thing to the HAPLR Index is in Germany. The project sponsored by the Bertelsmann Foundation is called "BIX - The Library Index." Bertelsmann Publishing partnered with the German library association to produce BIX, a library index quite similar to HAPLR. The main difference between BIX and HAPLR, aside from the publishing house backing, is that BIX was designed to provide comparisons of one library to another as well as over time. HAPLR compares all libraries to one another only during a given year. An English language description of the BIX index is available at:
http://www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de/documents/Projekt_Info_Englisch_010112.pdf

Authors

The originator of the United States' system, Thomas J. Hennen Jr. has been a librarian since 1975. He is the Director of Waukesha County Federated Library System in Wisconsin. He previously directed library systems elsewhere in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Library periodicals such as Library Journal, American Libraries, and the Australian Library and Information Science Journal have published over 50 articles on topics ranging from children’s literature to rural library service to library futures, standards, and accounting. In 2004 Neal-Schuman published his book, Hennen's Public Library Planner: A Manual and Interactive CD-ROM. It received positive reviews and is being used by many libraries across the country to plan for a better future. Hennen has addressed professional library associations in 16 U.S. states, 3 Canadian Provinces, and 2 Australian Provincees.
Valerie Hennen is the editor and co-founder of HAPLR. She has been an instructor at Gateway Technical College for since 1985. She received her MA in Curriculum and Instruction in 1978. She teaches Associate degree and diploma level general education courses including Written Communications, Oral Interpersonal Communications, Speech, Pre-College Writing, Pre-College Reading, and Technical Communication Skills. She has published state-wide curriculum projects under grants supervised by the Wisconsin Technical College System.

References

Lance, Keith Curry and Marti A. Cox. (June/July 2000), “Lies, Damn Lies, and Indexes”, ''American Libraries'' '31' (6): p. 82, ISSN 00029769
Nelson, Elizabeth. (Winter 2007) “Library Statistics and the HAPLR Index”, ''Library Administration & Management'' '21' (1) : p. 9, ISSN 08884463
Scheppke, Jim. (1999-11-15) “The Trouble with Hennen”, ''Library Journal'' '124' (19): p. 36, ISSN 03630277