Kalona Public Library gets accreditation

KALONA — The Kalona Public Library has met the Iowa State Library’s accreditation standards, maintaining a status its held for the last several years, according to staff.

While it’s not the library’s first achievement of tier 3 accreditation — which lasts for three years before routine re-evaluations — it is the first time doing so under the leadership of new Library Director Olivia Kahler. She said she was proud of the result, and said it represented hard work by all the institution’s staff, board members and volunteers.

“I’m very excited about it, we got a very fancy, gold-lettered certificate in the mail,” Kahler said. “I have always been a part of accreditation, but … I’ve never had to do it alone.”

The evaluation considers a massive number of standards, on everything from the preparation of an annual budget to availability of public computers to accessibility for disabled users to collection sizes to public relations efforts to robustness of community programming.

While 419 of Iowa’s 544 libraries are accredited, State Librarian Michael Scott said the accomplishment was no small matter.

“We congratulate the director and board of trustees of the Kalona Public Library,” Scott said in a news release. “Your community is to be commended for this achievement and your commitment to excellence in public library services.”

Being accredited lines the location up for more funding from the State Library of Iowa, which said extra dollars were available to local libraries for direct state aid and interlibrary loan reimbursement if they had high accreditation scores.

It’s also a win for KPL’s community image, according to Kahler. She said the accreditation status helped remind patrons of all the work that goes into running their library, and how valuable their support could be.

“Accreditation matters so that your community can see how useful a library is,” the director said. “You want to show them that you’re working hard to make the library a viable, positive place … We don’t want anyone to think that the librarians that are at work each day sit at the desk and read a book.”

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