The Library Journal Index of Public Library Service has awarded the Haines Borough Public Library a five-star rating for the third consecutive year.
“I’d like to make a proclamation commemorating and honoring our Haines Borough Public Library, who recently received the Library Journal five-star rating award,” Mayor Jan Hill said at an October meeting of the Haines Borough Assembly. “This is quite an award for a small library from a community our size.”
The Library Journal and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2005 named the 7,500-square-foot library, constructed in 2003, the Best Small Library in America.
Patricia Brown, library director, said the recent five-star rating is “based on a statistical report that we do yearly that’s sent in to our state libraries.”
“Out of the 16,600 U.S. public libraries, 7,407 were given Library Journal Index scores,” Brown said. “Of that 7,407, 258 received from three to five stars. Haines Borough Public Library scored third nationally in overall service points per capita for our expenditure range ($400,000 to $999,999).”
The Library Journal considered per capita annual numbers for the library’s circulation (46.1), visits (36.5), program attendance (2.78) and Internet terminal use (14.07).
“Within each expenditure peer group nationally, the Library Journal identifies the top 30 scores and awards the top 10 scores a five-star rating, the next 10 scores a four-star and the remaining 10 a three-star rating,” Hill said in her proclamation.
She called the library “a centerpiece of the community.”
“It’s good to be recognized, because it does talk about customer service and how we serve the community,” Brown said.