LM_NET: Library Media Networking
- Subject: HIT: Ratio of books to students at your school
- From: Alan L Brown <alanbrown@SYMPATICO.CA>
- Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 08:43:48 -0400
Hi everyone
Here's the response I received from my query which was:
I was wondering what the ratio of books to students is at your school. At
my
school we have about 6000 books for 740 children which is a ratio of 8. I
think this is low and I'm putting together a proposal to my principal
about,
among other things, the low number of books. Any feedback you could give me
would be most appreciated. If I get a lot of responses, I'll post a hit.
Thanks for all your responses. Much appreciated!
---------------------------------------------------
Dear Alan,
Sounds low to me, too. 250 gr. K-4 students with appx. 5000 bks
(estimate). Other schools with about 3-4,000. Every yr. SLJ does a survey &
publishes the results & it includes holdings. You might find this useful.
Yours,
Eileen Spillane
Spookys6@aol.com
Middletown, RI
---------------------------------------------------
Please do post. I have just come to a school of 1500+ kids and 6500 books.
Seems low to me!
Carolyn Reid, LMS
Campbell County High School
---------------------------------------------------
Alan,
We have about 23,000 hardback books and only 340 students. 65+ books per
student. (Certain areas badly need weeding.)
Saranne Gans
Librarian/Educator
Cistercian Prep School
Irving, TX
---------------------------------------------------
Do you belong to any Accreditation organization? They often have a
policy of X books per student. My school belongs to two and the Southern
Association of Colleges and Schools requires 20 / student. North Central
Association at one time required the same. Hope this helps
Randy English
renglish@ccasaints.org
---------------------------------------------------
Another interesting question is to compare the $$$ spent per pupil in the
library book budget to the reading scores.
Jeannette Croft
Library Consultant
---------------------------------------------------
Alan,
I just dug out my year end report. We have a total holdings of 7199. I'm
hoping we'll have 190 students in Sept., but that might be wishful
thinking. We started with 194 a year ago, but dropped to 180 by June.
We're not in a transient area, but many families are selling their farms
and moving to the prairies hoping things will be easier there! Anyway, I
subtracted the staff books, novel sets and videos and came up with 6415.
I've had the best principal in the province (he just retired) and the
highest T-L time in the district (I'm 60% library and 10% prep)! I usually
get $18.00/student and do fund raising as well.
Hope this is useful.
Randi Louise Hermans
Teacher-librarian
East Chilliwack Elementary
Chilliwack, B.C. Canada
rhermans@chill.org
---------------------------------------------------
Dear Alan,
I believe you are right about a low ratio, but I think a colleague of
mine had the worst I have seen at the start of last year. 750 books : 950
students. I appear to have a lot of books in my "new" library, but my media
director told me that I was to do a major weeding, starting next week. They
have not had a Teacher-Librarian in the school in recent memory.
Dorothy E. Tissair
Library Media Specialist
Mark Twain School
Hartford, CT
ricflair@mail2.nai.net
---------------------------------------------------
Dear Mr. Brown, The Southern Association of Colleges and Universities
which is the accediting group for Virginia and many of other states in the
U S... required 10 books per pupil as of 1996 when I retired. US state
boards of education and accrediting groups and the ALA are switching
(unfortunately, I think) to no longer giving a definite number for library
seating, books, videos, cds, librarians, clerks, etc. per pupil. They use
statements of much more amphorus and ambiguious non-specific requirements.
I would say that 8 books per pupils seems low and would probably be ideally
found only in a very new library either just opened or in it's first few
years.
Thanks, Nancy Brown Supler
Jim and Nancy Supler/7601 Croydon Place/ Manassas VA 20109/ USA
*and* RR#2 South Shore Road, 9 Mile Creek/ Cornwall PEI C0A 1H0/ Canada
Always at<jbsnbs@erols.com>
---------------------------------------------------
Dear Alan,
My school has approximately 400 students (K-4 and 4 Special. Ed. classes)
and the library has about 8000 books for a ration of 20 to 1.
Good luck with your proposal.:-)
Julie Livengood, LMS
Rogers Elementary Library
Jamestown, NY 14701
jliven@netsync.net
---------------------------------------------------
We have approximately 25,000 books for 2800 students, which is roughly 9 per
student. This includes old, outdated material unfortunately.
Mary Ann
La Joya Hi School, TX
---------------------------------------------------
5th/6th grade school
10000 books/400 students
Chuck Finnigan
*********************************
Central Elem School Library
cfinnigan@swsd.wednet.edu
http://www.swsd.wednet.edu/ct/lr.htm
---------------------------------------------------
We are a small rural school with 485 students K-6. Our library
collection has roughly 8000 items. I think we have a pretty good
collection--for the past three years I have been trying to keep the
collection size about the same--discarding almost as many titles as I
purchase because we are short on space. It has not been a hardship
because we needed to withdraw many outdated titles!
B. Kane, Librarian
Panama Elementary, Panama NY
bhkane@yahoo.com
---------------------------------------------------
Alan,
Right now we have a ratio of about 9 to 1. However, in California the
Legislature started last year to fund library materials for school
libraries. In that legislation there is language that sets as the ideal a
ratio of 20 to 1 of current, good condition books per student. This may
help.
Bob Laramee
Arvin High School Library Media Teacher
Arvin, CA 93203
bookworm@lightspeed.net
---------------------------------------------------
We are a Prk to eighth grade (ages 4 to 14) school with about 575 students.
Our library contains close to 14,000 vols which makes the ratio
approximately 24 to 1. Our high school (grades 9 - 12) has 13000 vols with a
student body of about 450 which makes the ratio 28 to 1.
Cecily Pilzer
Media Specialist
Georgetown Day School
4530 MacArthur Blvd. NW
Washington, DC 20007
cecily@cais.com
---------------------------------------------------
Alan,
8500 hardcover & 2000 paperback to 720 students, here. (Weeded down from
over 10,000.)
Vicki Reutter, LMS
Cazenovia (NY) High School
vreutt@aol.com
---------------------------------------------------
Alan:
We are a K-12 school with one building. Our libraries contain about 15,000
books for 925 students, about 16 books per student. My administration,
however, is VERY supportive of the library, as are our parents. Many staff
members donate memorial funds for books to our school library in memory of
family members, students, community members, staff, or students' family
members. We usually get 15-20 books per year this way. Nice hardcovers. I
maintain a list of needs, or the staff member tells me what type of book
they would like, such as farming, Caldecott, etc. This has helped a lot
over the last few years. I've been in the library for 7 years and we have
been doing this for the last five. It was a staff member's idea, and has
worked out GREAT! To date we have had over 100 books (K-12) donated. Good
luck on getting more materials for your students and staff
Kate Hass
khass@avci.net
Ubly Community School
Ubly, MI 48413
---------------------------------------------------
I know it, I know it, I'm Blessed Beyod Belief
About 450 kids, approximately 26,000 books.
(Private school)
Jennifer Coleman
The Lamplighter School, Dallas, TX
bfc@prodigy.net
---------------------------------------------------
Alan,
At Grand Ridge Grade School we have 350 students and about 10,000
books.
Rachel Woodyer
---------------------------------------------------
Alan--
At my k-8 school, we have approx. 14,000 books and approx. 950 students,
which
is more than 14 books per student.
Myra Gross (square12@bellatlantic.net)
Librarian, Logan Twp. Elem.
Swedesboro, NJ
---------------------------------------------------
Definitely too low a ratio. Unfortunately mine has been 6,000 books to
1100 kids, even worse. I'm getting monies as fast as I can talk my
principals (3 in the past 2 years) into added funding. I received $12,000
last year and $10,000 for the coming year, but when you also have to buy
supplies, magazine subscriptions, rubber school stamps, software, etc. from
the same monies, it doesn't go that far. And books are more and more
expensive. I seldom purchase more than one copy of anything so I'll have
more topics covered.
Sandy Pomerantz, Librarian
Central East Middle School
236 E. Wyoming Ave.
Phila., PA 19120
(215) 456-3037
spomeran@phila.k12.pa.us
---------------------------------------------------
Down here in Texas, our Texas Education Agency sets a minimum
standard for a school library collection at 12:1, with a minimum number
of volumes if you have small school. That minimum number escapes me at
the present (I am at home, so I can't look it up). My teensy school
library has about 5,000 volumes, counting A-V and computer software,
but we have only about 240 students right now, making a ratio of a
little over 20:1, but we still don't meet standards because we don't
have the minimum (it seems like it's 12,000 volumes, but don't hold me
to that). Good luck; I hope you get the budget to build that
collection up.
Lawrence Newton, Librarian
P.H. Holden Elem.
Houston (TX) ISD
lwnewton@yahoo.com
---------------------------------------------------
We have around 7,500 book and about 350 kids.
Sharon
Library Lady
SLFlesher@aol.com
Fisk Elementary
NH
---------------------------------------------------
Hi Alan,
I am in a middle school, new position for me. We have about 8000 books,
about 450 students - but I can already see that I want to get rid of a lot
of books this year. 1970's for science books seems a bit old!
Nancy Badertscher
Library Media Specialist/KidsConnect Volunteer
Maury River Middle School
Lexington, VA 24450
540/463-3129
home email - badertn@rockbridge.net, mamanan25@yahoo.com
school email - nhbader@rcs.rang.k12.va.us
---------------------------------------------------
Hi Alan,
I read your message about the student to book ratio. Our state (Maryland)
and county school system (Howard County) does not use a student to book
ratio to determine the number of items in our media collections. Rather,
we have a state standard that states that all elementary schools,
regardless of size, should have a minimum of 12,000 items in the library
media collection. This includes both books and audiovisual materials.
We think that this works better than a ratio, because every student should
have access to a well balanced, sizeable collection, regardless of the size
of the student population. This is especially important in small schools.
That is my 2 cents.
Carol Fritts
Carol Fritts
Library Media Instructional Facilitator
Howard County Public Schools
10910 Route 108
Ellicott City, MD 21042
410-313-7179
Fax 410-313-6795
---------------------------------------------------
Hi Alan - Not being back to school yet (and cherishing the last few days of
"freedom") our book ratio is about 5,500 books to about 220 kids. When we
automated two years ago I did a gigantic weeding (about 1000 books,
incredibly), but have built it back up a bit. Diana
Diana Greenleaf
New Durham School
7 Old Bay Road
PO Box 212
New Durham, NH 03855
(603) 859-2061
School: dgreenleaf@govwentworth.k12.nh.us
Home: gpr@worldpath.net
---------------------------------------------------
Alan,
I have a middle school library grades 6 -8 with approx. 485 students
and a ratio of 25 books to 1 student.
Hope this helps.
Ginny Konefal
Terrill Middle School
Scotch Plains, NJ 07076
terrillms@home.com
---------------------------------------------------
Alan,
I'm new in my school, but I do know the numbers.
We are an elementary school, K-5, with just over 600 students. My library
currently numbers 11,000 titles, 14,000 copies, but I expect to be culling
it
down (long overdue, expect fully 1/4 to go) to more like 9,000 titles,
11,500
copies.
I would like to imagine a 1:2 ratio at the minimum.
Interesting question. Good luck acquiring more books!
Alison Cuyler, LMS
Stevens Elementary School
Burnt Hills - Ballston Lake NY
---------------------------------------------------
A great site for such information is:
http://www.dese.state.mo.us/divinstr/curriculum/lmcindex.htm
it has all kinds of good information.
Laura Mason
Librarian/Grant Writer
Shelby County C-1 Schools
Shelbyville, MO 63469
lmason2@marktwain.net (summer)
---------------------------------------------------
Alan L. Brown
Toronto, Canada
alanbrown@sympatico.ca
Teacher-Librarian and Webmaster
'Just For Kids Who Love Books'
www.alanbrown.com
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