Library Earns Top-Tier 5-Star Rating

Monday, November 5, 2018
The Kansas City Public Library remains among a select group of public libraries across the country earning a 5-star designation from Library Journal.

It’s the third consecutive year that the Library has earned that top-tier rating. The Journal’s ratings, measuring the contributions that public libraries make to their communities, were released last week.

Only 85 public libraries nationwide – a little more than 1 percent of the total of 7,361 – received 5-star ratings. No other Missouri library was accorded that status.

“It’s a source of great satisfaction that the tremendous efforts of our staff and the great partnerships we have in our community are recognized by our professional peers,” Director Crosby Kemper III says.

“Importantly, this comes as we ask our community, our voters, to endorse us with a modest tax levy increase on tomorrow’s ballot. The Kansas City Public Library is proud to again be recognized as one of the nation’s great libraries.”

The New York-based Library Journal bases its ratings on per-capita library use in five areas – circulation, digital circulation, library visits, internet computer usage, and program attendance – as reported to state library agencies and compiled nationally by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. This year’s index uses that data from the 2016 fiscal year.

The Journal classifies libraries according to their yearly expenditures, and awards three, four, or five stars to the top libraries in each category. The Kansas City Public Library is among 127 libraries with budgets between $10 million and $30 million, the second-highest spending group. In that category, it was one of 10 earning five stars.