Competing with 81 public library systems of its size across the country, the Anne Arundel Public Library system has ranked fifth nationally and the highest of any public library system in the state, according to Hennen's American Public Library Ratings.
The Anne Arundel system, which has 15 branches, competed nationally in a category of libraries that serve populations of 250,000 to 499,000 and was rated on 15 factors, including circulation, staffing and funding levels.
"We're pleased that people from out of the area confirm what people here in the county feel - that we're giving good service," said Ronald S. Kozlowski, Anne Arundel's library administrator.
The ratings were determined by Thomas J. Hennen Jr., an administrator at the Waukesha County Federated Library system in Waukesha, Wis., and were based on 1998 data from the U.S. Federal-State Cooperative Service. This is the third edition of the ratings by Hennen, who has more than 25 years of experience with public libraries.
The Federal-State Cooperative Service database includes 8,968 library entities, but 1,648 libraries did not supply sufficient data to be ranked, according to information on Hennen's Web site, www.haplr-index.com.
The library systems in Baltimore County, Carroll County and Howard County were not ranked.
Another Maryland library system - the Enoch Pratt Free Library system - did not fare as well as Arundel, ranking 53rd of 62 libraries in its population category of more than 500,000.
The Somerset County Library system received the state's lowest rating, placing in the 8th percentile and ranking 1,283rd out of 1,399 libraries in its population category of 10,000 to 24,999.
