Iowa State’s Parks Library is ranked 76th of 111 U.S. and Canadian university libraries, according to the Sept. 17 issue of “The Chronicle of Higher Education.”

The ranking uses an index implemented by The Association of Research Libraries that is designed to measure the size of university libraries. Current rankings are based on library holdings for 1997-98. Parks Library was ranked 79th in a similar list released in 1992-93.

“We’re very pleased to be moving up some and not just holding our ground,” said Kristen Gerhard, Parks Library collections officer. “These lists don’t necessarily reflect the quality of service a library provides, but it’s nice to be recognized.”

The Association of Research Libraries index is based largely on numerical factors, such as the number of volumes held, number of volumes added during the previous fiscal year, number of current serials, total operating expenditures and size of the permanent staff.

The index does not, however, provide for any measure of quality of service or how well a library meets the needs of its university.

According to numbers listed in the ranking and on the Parks Library Web site, the library had 2,167,294 volumes, added 48,314 volumes, had 22,455 current serials, employed 155 permanent staff and had total expenditures of $13.9 million in 1997-98.

Library officials said the main reason ISU’s library system doesn’t rank higher is because of its central orientation around a main library, whereas other universities have library systems with a high number of branches. ISU has just one branch library, at the College of Veterinary Medicine, as well as four reading rooms.

“We generally will purchase only one copy of a volume for our main library, giving us one large central collection,” Gerhard said. “At other universities, where there are a high number of branches, they may have 15 or 20 copies of the same item, and they each get counted individually in determining the total number of volumes for these rankings.”

Gerhard also said the library is focusing on expanding its electronic information services, and that such services are making the number of physical volumes less important.

“With computer networks, people are able to get complete texts from wherever they are, rather than coming into the library,” she said. “We’re working hard to find ways to move further into the electronic realm, and the university has provided us with funds to focus on that goal.”

While the ranking does not provide for a measure of the quality of service, Gerhard said library officials are interested in gauging those factors.

“There’s always a couple of questions pertaining to the library on the annual campus satisfaction survey,” she said. “And we’re planning a user satisfaction survey ourselves that will be conducted in the spring semester.”

Coming in at the top of the rankings was Harvard University, which had 13,892,429 volumes in its library, added 310,016 volumes, had 105,449 current serials, employed 1,015 permanent staff and had total expenditures of $75.8 million in 1997-98. Harvard also was ranked first in the 1992-93 list.

The only other Iowa school in the ranking was the University of Iowa, ranked 25th. In 1997-98, Iowa had 3,926,853 volumes in its library, added 131,943 volumes, had 46,786 current serials, employed 218 permanent staff and had total expenditures of $20.1 million.