Hennen's American Public Library Ratings

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Hennen’s American Public Library Ratings Information

The latest HAPLR edition, published in the November 2006 edition of American Libraries, 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. The comparisons are 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 seven years since their first publication in American Libraries magazine, the official publication of the American Library Association.

Practically every time you pick up a magazine or newspaper there is another rating system for universities, places to work, hospitals, mutual funds, you name it. But there was none for libraries until the HAPLR ratings. Money magazine’s listing of best places to live covered libraries by measuring only books per capita. Public libraries needed a more comprehensive tool.

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.

Other National Library Rating Systems

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 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/

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

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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 of his 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 rave 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 and in 3 Canadian Provinces during his career.

Valerie Hennen is the editor and co-founder of HAPLR. She has been an instructor at Gateway Technical College for over 20 years. 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.

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