Index base ratings on official IMLS public library data, even after a library has acknowledged reporting some data incorrectly?
The propriety of the LJ Index has been questioned because it includes data the reporting library acknowledges to be incorrect. The LJ Index is based solely on the official data released by IMLS. States and communities quarrel with federal Census figures every time they are released, and researchers question their accuracy; but none of them has the authority or audacity to change or ignore those data. The IMLS public library data work this same way. It is not our role to re-adjudicate the data released by IMLS. Responsibility for the accuracy of public library data is shared by local, state, and federal agencies. Moreover, it is an impractical task to second-guess various data items. Impartial review of the data would require the majority of the data to be re-examined, not merely the most obvious values, since any items could contain errors. The result would produce a variant set of national data and work at cross purposes to the IMLS system. We explored the idea of publishing star libr
