Popularity badge parameters define the criteria a bibliographic record must meet to earn the badge, as well as which bibliographic records are eligible to earn the badge. For example, the popularity parameter "Circulations Over Time" can be configured to create a badge that is applied to bibliographic records for DVDs. The badge can be configured to look at circulations within the last 2 years, but assign more weight or popularity to circulations from the last 6 months.

Multiple popularity badges may be applied to a bibliographic record. For each applicable popularity badge, the record will be rated on a scale of 1-5, where a 5 indicates the most popular. Evergreen will then assign an overall popularity rating to each bibliographic record by averaging all of the popularity badge points earned by the record. The popularity rating is stored with the record and will be used to rank the record within search results when the popularity badge is within the scope of the search. The popularity badges are recalculated on a regular and configurable basis by the cron job badge_score_generator.pl. Popularity badges can also be recalculated by an administrator directly on the server.