AFPL Libraries Ranked by How Busy They Are

Library facilities can be ranked according to several emprical measures of how much of the county's library business they are handling, and an average ranking can then be computed to show an overall "busyness" score for each branch. Presumably, this score should have some bearing on how much financial and staff support should be allocated to the various facilities, with the busiest branches receiving more support than the less busy ones.

The chart below ranks the relative busyness of AFPL library facilities. Following the chart are several observations that the library administration and trustees should take into account when determining next year's budget allocations and when making "strategic planning" decisions about more sensible allocations of branch staff, where to locate new libraries, and which libraries to consider closing or merging with other ones.

Following those observations are links to the individual rankings used in constructing the composite "busyness" ranking as well as links to additional important rankings of branch activity.

Facility	Facility Type	Rank				Avg. Rank	Composite Rank
Facility	Facility Type	Service Population	# Registered Borrowers	# Visits per Hour	Circulation	Avg. Rank	Composite Rank
Roswell	Regional	2	1	2	2	1.85	1
Northeast	Regional	1	3	3	1	2.00	2
Sandy Springs	Regional	3	4	4	3	3.50	3
Alpharetta	Area	4	6	6	4	5.25	4
Southwest	Regional	9	5	9	5	7.00	5
Central	Systemwide	21*	2	1	6	7.50	6
South Fulton	Regional	7	8	7	10	8.00	7
Ponce	Area	10	7	8	8	8.25	8
Buckhead	Area	4	10	21	7	10.50	9
Fairburn	Community	16	16	10	10	13.00	10
East Point	Area	19	9	24	11	13.25	11
Northside	Area	17	11	16	9	13.25	11
Washington Park	Community	13	12	11	19	13.75	12
West End	Community	12	20	5	21	14.50	13
Adams Park	Community	11	18	15	15	14.75	14
Adamsville/Collier	Community	18	13	12	21	16.00	15
Cleveland Avenue	Community	20	19	20	15	18.50	16
Dogwood	Neighborhood	15	21	13	25	18.50	16
Stewart-Lakewood	Community	28	15	22	14	19.75	17
Kirkwood	Community	24	24	14	19	20.25	18
East Atlanta	Neighborhood	22	23	17	24	21.50	19
Bowen Homes	Neighborhood	31	27	19	26	25.75	20
Georgia-Hill	Neighborhood	25	22	30	27	26.00	21
Perry Homes	Neighborhood	27	31	18	30	26.50	22
Thomasville Heights	Neighborhood	23	26	29	32	27.50	23
Mechanicsville	Neighborhood	30	28	25	31	28.50	24
Bankhead Courts	Neighborhood	33	30	26	28	29.25	25
Carver Homes	Neighborhood	25	29	N.A.	33	29.33	26
Martin Luther King, Jr	Neighborhood	32	32	N.A.	29	31.00	27

*Service Population is apparently only for downtown area; the Central Library actually serves the entire system.

Staffing at some branches is way out of wack with the amount of work they are handling:

MLK is dead last in terms of relative volume of business. Why is the county poised to spend $350,000 to re-open this branch, whose service area is located less than a mile from the Central Library, less than a mile from the Auburn Avenue Research Library, and less than 3 miles from Ponce?

Roswell, one of the "temporary" Regional Libraries, is busier--and smaller, and older--than three of the facilities (Northeast, South Fulton, and Southwest) custom-built as a Regional Libraries.
Alpharetta, an Area Library, is much busier--and smaller, and older--than South Fulton, one of the Regional Libraries, and yet it's less well funded and staffed than South Fulton.
Is the staffing at the Central Library adequate for its status as the county's sixth-busiest library facility?
In terms of how busy it is relative to other branches, Ponce, an Area Library, functions more like a Regional Library than the other Area Libraries, and yet it is not funded or staffed like a Regional Library. Nor is it open to the public on Sundays, as Central and the Regional Libraries--and a single Area Library, East Point--are.
In terms of how busy it is relative to other branches, Fairburn, a Community Library, functions more like an Area Library than the other Community Libraries, and yet it is not funded or staffed like an Area Library--including the less-busy East Point. (Fairburn has also been forced to function for many months now without a full-time manager.)
Northside and East Point are both equally-busy Area Libraries, and yet East Point is far better funded and staffed than Northside. Why is that?
Dogwood, a Neighborhood Library, is busier than two Community Libraries. In terms of how busy it is relative to other branches, Dogwood functions more like a Community Library than the other Neighborhood Libraries, and yet it is not funded or staffed like a Community Library.