Petersburg’s public library has been recognized for a high level of use by the community.
Petersburg’s library is one of five in the state and 262 in the country given a “Star” designation by the trade periodical Library Journal for usage in 2010. Alaska state library officials highlighted the honor this month.
“The fact that Petersburg has received this honor three times indicates that it has a high level of support and usage by the people of Petersburg, said Patience Frederiksen, data coordinator with the state library. “There are libraries in Alaska that have never been designated as star libraries and those that are well supported and well-used are the ones that keep coming up in this designation. It really is a measure of community support and use of the library which would indicate that the library is providing something that the people of Petersburg want.”
Libraries in Unalaska, Haines, Seward and Homer also won star designations. Stars are given out for circulation, library visits, program attendance and public internet use per capita.
Frederiksen expects to see Petersburg’s new library building boost local usage. “I can almost guarantee you the public library statistics in Petersburg are going to skyrocket when the new building opens,” she said. “And so I can almost predict they’ll be on this list again next year. Mainly because we know that people are going to use the new library a lot more with the new facility. We see that time and again.”
The designation is exciting news for Petersburg’s librarian Tara Alcock. “I’d like to say how tremendous the staff is here and how they really deserve the pat on the back for this because it’s their ability excellent service and programs that makes a library successful,” Alcock said.
The other four facilities in the state earning the honor have expenditures between 400-thousand and a million dollars. Petersburg’s library has expenditures between 200-thousand and 400 thousand dollars.
The Library Journal has been publishing the star ratings for five years. 87 public libraries in Alaska and more than 92-hundred around the country were considered for the designation.
