St. Louis County Library Ranked 5-stars by Library Journal
St. Louis County Library has been ranked a 5-star library in the 2022 Library Journal Index of Public Library Service. This is the first time SLCL has been ranked a 5-star library, the highest available ranking. For several consecutive years, SLCL has received 4 stars. The designation is determined by scoring public libraries in nine categories of service outputs: legal service area population, physical circulation, e-material circulation, library visits, program attendance, public computer users, wi-fi sessions, electronic retrievals and library website visits. St. Louis County Library is in the highest annual operating expenditure category along with other large library districts in the US. The ranking is based on statistics from 2020, when SLCL circulated over 10.8 million items despite being closed for most of the year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
St. Louis County Library Director & CEO Kristen Sorth said, “Our employees are the heart and soul of the library. They have worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic to support our region. They are the reason we are 5-star library, we couldn’t do it without them.”
To create the index, public libraries are compared to others with similar annual expenditures and ranked accordingly. Star Library ratings of five, four, and three stars are awarded to libraries that generate the highest combined per capita outputs among their peers. SLCL received a five-star rating in the $30,000,000+ expenditure range.
The Library Journal is a publication of the American Library Association. More information about the Library Journal Index of Public Library Service can be found here.
The five-star ranking comes during a year when SLCL has received numerous accolades.The district celebrated 75 years of service to the community, and received several prestigious awards–including the National Medal for Library Service and the Missouri Library of the Year. Other milestones from this year included:
- In March, St. Louis County Library merged catalogs with St. Louis Public Library, giving patrons from both library systems access to nearly 5 million items.
- In June, SLCL began offering free notary services at all branch locations. The service has been extremely popular–over 7,000 items have been notarized.
- In September, construction began on the new Clark Family Branch (replacing the old Headquarters building). The new branch will be a two-story, 74,000 square foot building with an 800-seat event space, a small business center, colorful spaces for kids and teens, a Genealogy Center, private study rooms, a quiet reading room, a computer lab, community meeting rooms and more. The Robert G. Clark Family donated $4 million to the St. Louis County Library and St. Louis County Library Foundation toward the new branch
- In October, SLCL hosted the 43rd Annual St. Louis Storytelling festival, with over 8,500 attendees.
- In December, SLCL celebrated the 100th graduate from the Excel Adult High School program. The program offers adults the opportunity to earn a nationally accredited high school diploma and career certificate online.
Media inquiries should be directed to Jennifer McBride, Communications Manager at jmcbride@slcl.org or 314-994-3300 ext 2250.