Forward to Basics: Public Library Minimum Standards, Targets, and Benchmarks of Excellence  

See also the article from the March 2000 issue of American Libraries.

Thomas J. Hennen Jr. - February 2000

CONTENTS

Introduction	Benchmarking Standards
Who Will Set New Standards?	ISO 9000 Standards
General Comments on Standards	Electronic Measures
Minimum Standards	National Context
Target Standards	Genius Grants
Conclusion	Chronology of ALA standards

 

Sources of further Information

Web Sites

State & Local Standards on the Web

   

Introduction

 

Back to basics is a common expression.  If public libraries are to flourish, they must move forward to basics, not back.  A system of library standards should be established that identifies:

1)     Minimum standards for all public libraries in America that only a very few could not achieve, 

2)     Advisory standards that all libraries should strive for, though only some will reach,

3)     Benchmarks of excellence for libraries that only the very few achieve. They will help disseminate their best practices for all to emulate.

 

In the middle of the last century, Lowell Martin in A National Plan for Library Service wrote:  “The first hard truth that confronts an observer of American public libraries is that they have stopped far short of their potential.  The second is that in isolated places and in partial fashion, they have performed an educational function this is unique and significant.”  At the dawn of this new century, one is still hard pressed to come to any other conclusion.  

 

Fifty years ago, public library leaders like Carelton Joeckl and Lowell Marin thought nationally in their planning.  National library standards reached their zenith in the Johnson administration.  By the Carter administration, the standards baby was thrown out with the input bathwater.   Almost everything was re-defined in terms of output measures.  Lacking any national standards, most states began or revised their own state standards.  This was a trend that meshed all too well with the Reagan-Bush devolution and states rights philosophy. 

 

The wider national framework of business practices and research has consistently influenced library planning and research.  There have been efforts at using benchmarking, total quality management, and similar methods, especially in academic libraries, but as John Moorman noted in the January 1997 issue of Public Libraries, there does not appear to be much professional consensus on either public library standards or evaluation methods. 

 

 

The library map of America is littered with many autonomous local agencies with wholly inadequate buildings, untrained staff and useless collections.  Citizens have been robbed of an invaluable educational resource.  When such agencies are allowed to be dignified with the name of “public library,” all adequate and excellent libraries everywhere are demeaned.   Attacking the Myths of Small Libraries.  By Thomas J. Hennen Jr.  American Libraries 17:11 (December 1986) 830-834.

 

American Library Association Public Library Standards – A Chronology

 

With thanks especially to: Redmond Kathleen Molz and Phyllis Dain, the authors of:  Civic Space/Cyberspace:  The American Public Library in the Information Age. 1999.  The MIT Press.  This excellent book explores the history, present circumstances and future prospects of American libraries. It is the source for many of the statements below.

 

 

1917	Carnegie building program ceases, but Carnegie Corporation continues focus on research and development of public libraries.  2,509 libraries were built in the English-speaking world with Carnegie grants.
1933	National Resources Planning Board established by Roosevelt.  Carleton Joeckl at University of Chicago and others convince this board to pay attention to the needs of libraries.  The board grants funds to research library standards to Joeckl.  It is noted that one third of the nation is ill-libraried as well as ill-clothed and ill-housed and ill-fed.
1935	Carnegie Corporation was disappointed that some communities were not adequately supporting the libraries established with gift money.  It supported Carleton Joeckel at the University of Chicago.  He publishes The Government of the American Public Library Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1935.  He calls for wider units of service and wider sources of funding.  This helps to move A.L.A. in the direction of advocacy for public library standards and federal funding for libraries.  ALA publishes its first “National Plan” for libraries.
1943	First ALA standards published jointly with the National Resources Planning Board.  Since the 1943 publication was titled “Post-War Standards for Public Libraries,” the authors were clearly looking to the future.
1946	Public Library Service Demonstration Bill.  Concerned that the National Resources Planning Board program was too ambitious for a newly Republican Congress, Carl H. Milam, ALA Executive Director, and other ALA leaders pushed a more targeted approach to federal funds for libraries.  The name was later revised to Library Services Act.
1948	Carleton Joeckl and Amy Winslow publish A National Plan for Public Library Service (Chicago: American Library Association, 1948.  Its inscription reads quotes Chicago City Planner, Daniel Burnham: “Make no small plans for they have not the beauty to stir our souls.”
1950	Social Scientist Robert D. Leigh writes The Public Library in the United States.  (New York: Columbia University Press, 1950)  Sponsored by the Social Science Research Council at the behest of the American Library Association and supported with funds from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.  He challenged the library community to examine its “Library Faith;” and consider the tension between quality selection and public demand for materials.  He defined six fields of knowledge and interest to which the public library should devote its resource.  These are very close to the roles set in the 1987 document noted below.
1956	Congress enacts the Library Services Act, the first federal funds for libraries.  It is focused on rural libraries that are deemed to be sub-standard.  At the same time, the American Library Association publishes its new standards document: Public Library Service (Chicago: American Library Association, 1956)
1964	Library Services and Technology Act.  Thanks to the demographic shifts in the congress resulting from the move from rural to suburban America, the rural focus of LSA is changed to allow buildings, city funding and system funding.  The next issue of the standards will reflect the change.
1966	American Library Association publishes Minimum Standards for Public Library Systems  (Chicago: American Library Association, 1966).  The standards reiterate the comment from the 1956 version that: The introduction notes: "Libraries working together, sharing their services and materials, can meet the full needs of their users. This co-operative approach on the part of libraries is the most important single recommendation of this document."
1977	Vernon E. Palmour, became the chief investigator of a U.S. Office of Education funded research project to prepare a manual for community libraries engaged in long-range planning.  In earlier decades at Baltimore County Library System, he and others had pushed the “give them what they want theory” of book selection and services.
1980	ALA publishes Vernon Palmour’s “A Planning Process for Public Libraries.”  This volume marked the abandonment of standards in favor of planning for outputs.  The decade-long endeavor of the Public Library Association to revise the 1966 public library standards came to a close.
1987	Planning and Role Setting for Public Libraries, by Charles R. McClure, Amy Owen, Douglas L. Zweizig, Mary Jo Lynch, and Nancy A. Van House,   (Chicago, IL: American Library Association, 1987) This revision and simplification of the 1980 document was intended primarily for use by the small and medium-size public library, the document identified eight distinctive roles for library service roles.
1998	Planning for Results: A Public Library Transformation Process, by Ethel Himmel and William James Wilson.  (Chicago: American Library Association, 1998)   The 1987 roles are replaced by "fourteen service responses that are community needs-based, situation-sensitive, and more specific, but at the same time more flexible…”
2000	At least 18 states now have their state standards available on the web.

 

 

 

Who Will Set New Standards?

 

A critical question to ask is who will define new standards?  Until 1966, A.L.A. took an active role in setting standards.  Since then, A.L.A. has concentrated on variations on planning and encouraging libraries to set their own standards.  Individual state library agencies assisted by state library associations have taken on the job.  Who should take the lead in setting new standards?  Should it be the National Commission on Libraries Information Services, the U.S. Department of Education Institute for Museums and Libraries, or the Public Library Association (PL)?  PLA would be the most appropriate to this author’s mind.  

 

Carnegie Corporation spurred the push for standards and wider units of service.  Carnegie was disappointed by the failure of individual libraries built with Carnegie grants to garner sufficient support to thrive.    Standards, it was hoped would help.  Starting in the 1930’s, the University of Chicago and Carlton Joeckl, among others, were encouraged to push the American Library Association in the direction of national standards.   In our day the Gates Library Foundation is spending millions to place computers in the most disadvantaged libraries but has not seen the need for balancing the books and bytes.  Perhaps one day soon it will see the need for encouraging both the bootstrap libraries and the libraries that have the best practices. 

 

Who will resist new national standards?  The state library agencies, citing the need for more local standards, will probably do so.  Many libraries at or above current median levels of numeric standards for their state will object.  They will have complaints about minimums becoming maximums, holding back the best, and so forth.   Allowing for benchmark standards of excellence to which the top tier of libraries can aspire will help to alleviate these concerns.

 

 

General Comments on Library Standards

Most often when we think of standards, we immediately jump to the numerical standards such as the number of books per capita, hours open, or computer workstations a library of a given size should have.  Equally, if not more important, are prescriptive standards.  These prescriptive standards enquire about the existence of a challenged materials policy, bylaws for the board, Internet acceptable use policies, and the like.  There are no numbers here, simply an answer of yes or no to things that it is deemed every library should be doing.  Does it really take a planning process to discover that a library needs bylaws for the board or a selection policy?  Of course not.  Standards that require all libraries to have such policies and procedures ought not to be optional or “discovered” by community analysis.  They are simply necessary.  They are necessary nationally, not state by state.  

 

It must also be noted that while technical standards, such as the MARC standard for cataloging are important, they are not the primary focus of the present discussion. 

 

In 1956, the same year in which federal aid for public libraries was first enacted, the American Library Association published a compendium of standards for public libraries designed to be used by local boards and governmental officials. Clearly, the import of this document was its recognition of the value of library systems. It stated unequivocally this dictum: "Libraries working together, sharing their services and materials, can meet the full needs of their users. This co-operative approach on the part of libraries is the most important single recommendation of this document."    The 1966 revision of the public library standards reiterated this premise and was entitled more precisely Minimum Standards for Public Library Systems, 1966.   By 1980 A.L.A. had abandoned standards in favor of locally defined planning processes.

 

Minimum Standards

Minimum standards are, or should be, met by every library.  Theoretically, one might say that if a library does not meet the standard, it can be called a reading room, a coffee shop with books, or something else, but not a public library. 

 

Minimum standards get some attention and lip service, but few states have implemented such standards for any but the narrowest of measures.  Most often these minimum standards include certification of library staff and hours of service.  Wisconsin has just added absolute minimum standards hours, collection size and budget to its standards, although the standards, like most state standards, are advisory. 

 

Target Standards

 

Many states have target standards.  These involve moving target standards pegged to some proportion of the median measures for a given library population.  There is none of that Lake Woebegone "everyone is above average" mentality in such standards.  By definition a given percent of libraries will be substandard.  Because so many libraries cannot, by definition, cannot meet the standards they are always advisory. 

 

It is these target standards, on a national basis, particularly the numerical standards for collection size, expenditures per capita, and the like, whose lack is most often lamented by libraries seeking improvements.  However, those libraries well above the targets fear such targets will hold them back.  They urge community based planning instead of hard standards. 

 

Benchmarking Standards

 

Benchmarking standards are found in total quality management (TQM) circles. Benchmark standards are intended to indicate excellence and best practices that can be emulated by others.  In 1979 Xerox used Benchmarking to improve their warehousing operations by replicating the efficiencies achieved by L.L. Bean.  If corporations in one industry can find value in comparing to corporations in entirely different industries, how can libraries claim to be beyond comparison?

 

Since 1991, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has awarded the Baldridge Award for Quality in American businesses.  The award and the attention it draws have greatly increased the interest of both business and the public sector in the techniques involved with Benchmarking and Best Practices. 

 

As long ago as 1985 Christine MacDonald at the Toronto Reference Library, now part of the Toronto Public Library System, conducted the first known library benchmarking study of its Public Service Department.  Comparing practices to other peer libraries led to a number of innovations and changes that improved efficiencies.  Involvement of the staff at an earlier stage of the benchmarking process would have enhanced the process, MacDonald notes.

 

 Arno Loessner at the University of Delaware has recently (1999) tried to match Delaware libraries with other peer institutions with the hope of establishing a mentoring process that allows Delaware libraries to learn from peer libraries that have achieved excellence by some definitions. There is much more development on such benchmarks in the private sphere with the ISO 9000 quality standards and the Commerce Department's Baldridge Awards than is found in public libraries.  

 

For most businesses it is an axiom that if an agency consistently meets or exceeds all expectations, soon enough the customer’s expectations will change.  The result is a never-ending treadmill of higher quality and higher expectations.   The axiom’s converse is not deemed to be true in a competitive environment.  That is, customers usually change businesses when a firm consistently disappoints them.  The exception to that rule is in a monopoly setting.  Where once we in libraries may have felt we had a near monopoly, with the Internet barking in the foreground and cyber-cafes and mega bookstores baying in the background; few public librarians feel immune any longer. 

 

It is time to encourage America's best libraries go through a quality assurance process similar to that used by private industry using the ISO 9000 standards.  This would assure that libraries would have the necessary documentation on planning and development to allow other libraries and library schools to study their best practices. 

 

The following, relevant to those concerned about library comparisons is from David Ammons’ article Raising the performance bar...locally was in the September 1997 issue of Public Management magazine:

 

 

ISO 9000 Standards

 

ISO 9000 is a set of five universal standards for a Quality Assurance system.  The standards are accepted around the world. Currently 90 countries have adopted ISO 9000 as national standards. Customers for a product or service from a company that is registered to the appropriate ISO 9000 standard have important assurances that the quality received will be as expected. The standards apply uniformly to companies in any industry of any size.   There is a growing trend toward universal acceptance of ISO 9000 as an international standard. 

 

Public libraries have not registered with ISO 9000, but library suppliers, such as OCLC have.  The present proposal merely urges that top-notch libraries be urged to apply for ISO 9000 type certification as a condition for grants and recognition.  It is not suggested that all or even most libraries should use this process, only the willing and the best.

 

General Motors can purchase crankshafts, radiators and the like from scores of companies.  It chooses to purchase only from ISO 9000 certified suppliers because the certification helps to ensure a higher level of consistent quality in the product.  The suppliers have gone through a rigorous regimen of self-analysis and documentation of processes. 

 

In a way ISO 9000 certification is a bit like ALA Accreditation for Library Schools.  The documentation and site visits cannot absolutely guarantee that all graduates are well taught and know their stuff, of course.  The odds are just increased, that's all. An unaccredited school also produces quality grads, but most libraries look for ALA accreditation for the same reason that GM looks for ISO certification.  They are betting that it will increase their chances of quality. 

 

Public sector benchmarking: 

 

In the public sector, benchmarking has been used in a variety of ways. 

 

Ø     Private industry benchmarking as used in ISO 9000 – focus more on process details. 

 

Ø     Targets as benchmarks – As one example, Oregon benchmarks define a strategic set of goals for the state that can be stated in terms of outcomes.  Oregon focused on youth services in 1989.  Note that this had a major influence on state library grants and library focus.  See for instance Ammons. 

 

Ø     Performance statistics as benchmarks.  – Such measures focus more on outcome details.  The measures can be either statistical or anecdotal, official or media/pundit driven.  – Some have asked if the HAPLR Index have had the impact that it did if not for the reluctance of many professional librarians over many years to make any comparisons at all.

 

Ø     The Balanced Scorecard approach attempts to provide performance measurement across four main areas:  financial, customer, internal business  processes, and learning/growth.  The approach is intended to link performance and action measures and linked to an organization’s vision and strategy. 

 

Ø     As the National Partnership for Reinventing Government notes in “Balancing Measures: Best Practices in Performance Management,”  [t]he old method of management, which focused only on the bottom line, no longer works. If the customer, stakeholder, and employee are not part of the solution, they will forever be part of the problem.

 

Ø     The aim of the EQUINOX Project is to address the need for all libraries to develop and utilize performance measures for the new networked, electronic environment, alongside traditional measures, and to operate these within a framework of quality management. The EQUINOX software will be an integrated Quality Management System (QMS) and Performance Measurement System (PMS) software application tool for traditional and electronic library services. EQUINOX will be the first system to provide librarians with an integrated tool for managing the `hybrid' library. One searches in vain for any comparable U.S. efforts. 

 

 

Electronic Measures

 

The most talked about area of library standards development right now is, of course, the area of measurement of electronic and Internet use. 

 

The Federal State Cooperative Service group in December voted to add only ONE of three proposed measures.  We need proper standards to begin to adequately address the important issues of Internet use and electronic use in libraries, but neither ALA nor anyone else in nationally seems able to address this critical area. 

 

Others, notably Bertot and McClure and the European Equinox project are attempting to standardize electronic measures. To date consensus on this pivotal issue eludes us. 

 

 

National Context

 

Although he had much to do with its governmental launch, Vice President Al Gore did not invent the Internet.  But he has spent nearly 8 years pushing the re-invention of government. 

 

As the National Partnership for Reinventing Government notes in “Balancing Measures: Best Practices in Performance Management,”  [t]he old method of management, which focused only on the bottom line, no longer works. If the customer, stakeholder, and employee are not part of the solution, they will forever be part of the problem.

 

A December 13, 1999, Vice Presidential Press release reads in part:

 

A new, wide-ranging rating of satisfaction with federal government services allows federal agencies to be compared to the private sector and each other for the first time ever. The ratings span 29 so-called “high impact” agencies, and are being issued as a special report of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), which has been measuring satisfaction with goods and services in the private sector since 1994. The aggregate score for the federal government is 68.6 on a 100-point scale. This is 6 percent lower than the private-sector aggregate score of 73, but 9 percent higher than commercial airlines and 11 percent higher than satisfaction with network news.

 

Libraries were not included in this process.  After the Fall election, we may wish we had been.

 

Library Genius Grants

 

The text below was originally presented to an OCLC Sponsored awards dinner for the 5 top ranked HAPLR Index libraries in Ohio.

 

The author’s HAPLR Index was featured in the January and September issues of American Libraries.  In brief, here is how he would like to use benchmarking tools to provide for a new type of grant program.

 

1.     Use the HAPLR Index to identify candidates for library grants and recognition.  Libraries so identified could then choose to enter into a grant process. 

 

2.     Applicant libraries would be subjected to a peer review process that lets seasoned professional librarians rate the libraries.  This will assure professional judgment of the libraries in a process similar to that applied to library schools for certification.

 

3.     The applicant libraries would also be tested with a customer satisfaction inventory using a national agency to assure that they are also providing customer service in an excellent manner.  One of the possible methods would be use of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), a national economic indicator of customer satisfaction with the quality of goods and services available to consumers in the United States.

 

4.     The applicant libraries would go through a quality assurance process similar to that used by private industry using the ISO 9000 standards to assure that libraries would have the necessary documentation on planning and development to allow other libraries and library schools to study and learn from their best practices. 

 

5.     Library Schools would provide field placements at the mentor libraries to allow new graduates exposure to examine the best practices of the top libraries. 

 

6.     Virtual training centers would be established.  They would use distance education technology to discuss and examine the best practices at the mentor libraries.  The distance education centers would allow library staff at all libraries to join a virtual community to examine the best practices at mentor libraries. <