Hartington Public Library once again earns state accreditation

LINCOLN — The Nebraska Library Commission has granted the Hartington Public Library a gold level accreditation status.

It is the highest distinction of standards in the library field and the accreditation runs thru Dec. 31, 2028. This is the third time since 2015 that the library has earned the gold status. A special thanks goes to the support of the community, staff, volunteers and the Library Board of Trustees who governs monthly at the library. The purpose of public library accreditation is to promote excellent library services in Nebraska communities. The Nebraska Library Commission has been providing levels of accreditation since 2000.

“There are many factors to the accreditation process, including statistics on budget, library collection and turnover of that collection, programs and attendance, and circulation per capita,” said Tami Anderson, Library Director. “In many of these areas, we are compared to peer libraries in communities of our size across the State of Nebraska. To earn points toward our overall score, we must perform in the top half of our peer libraries in these different categories.

“There is a lot of work that goes into this accreditation process, and it doesn’t happen overnight. Not only does our library have to be well organized at an administrative level, the library board has to provide a five-year strategic/community plan to the state library that helps give us direction in our daily work, as well as any projects we wish to accomplish during this period. The process starts with specific survey questions to the community, along with the board reviewing and updating all of the policies that govern our library.”

Accredited libraries are eligible for state aid to public libraries and can apply for grants through the Nebraska Library Commission. These grants include Continuing Education and Training Grants, Internship Grants, Library Improvement Grants, and Youth Grants for Excellence, as well as grant funding from the Nebraska Department of Economic Devel-