Thank you to all who responded to my question about required or suggested librarian
to student ratios. Here are the replies I received. Thanks
again for your help!
Cindi Ortiz, Hackensack High School Library, Hackensack NJ
Library Media Connection did a national survey on this exact topic. It's
online at:
http://www.linworth.com/pdf/main/survey_results/1qs_August_September2007.pdf
If you are accredited by a regional association (ours is the Southern Association
of Schools and Colleges) then
they will have specific staffing guidelines. Others will vary according to
state.
Our county has 3 high schools. The two largest have around 1300
students. Both have 2 full time
librarians and at least part-time clerical help. The third HS only has around
700 students (part of that district was annexed by the city and those
students now attend a city school). That school has 1.5 positions with
part-time clerical help.
In NY where I used to work, I believe it's a state reg to
have one for every 1000 students. I'm in CT now and I work in a 2 librarian library
and we have about 1600 students. You are definitely understaffed.
When AASL updated Information Power, they did not include ratios for staffing, nor
did they suggest basic, good
and exemplary levels of print titles per student. I don't know if the committee
couldn't agree or if the potato was too hot to handle. Regardless, it leaves us
as professionals with little fodder for the cannon. As we remodel our library and I
look at the age and size of our collection, I had to use Minnesota's
standards to bolster my argument. Your best bet is to use numbers and advocates.
However, a wealthy district near ours employs 2 full-time librarians and their
enrollment is over 4,000! Our professional organizations need to begin to research
and support us in these areas.
I don't know about NJ standards, but the Southern Association of Colleges
and Schools (SACS) has
pretty specific staffing guidelines. You can find them at
http://www.glc.k12.ga.us/pandp/media/FAQ1.htm#SACS. You want page 13 for
staffing guidelines. You should have something like this put
out by your accediting agency.
The state of Montana has accreditation standards that address the number of
librarians per student population.
In our state, 499 students must have 1 librarian. 500 must have 2.
You can see what your accrediting agency recommends (if there's a
recommendation.) Middle States is our accrediting group and I don't know
that they have any requirements listed regarding personnel.
The recommendation of NEASC (New England Assoc. of Schools and Colleges), which is
our accrediting body, is
1:1000, so you are way over. Hope this helps.
This should be something your state standards determine. In
Illinois, I believe the recommendation is 1 librarian and one staff
for each 600 students, but I would have to double check this to be
sure. Ours are laid out in the Linking for Learning Standards for
School Library Media Programs.
In Rhode Island, the secondary staffing is set by law in the Basic Education
Plan, written in the 1960's and revised in the 1980's. In a secondary school
with 1000 or more students, we are mandated to have 2.0 full time certified
LMS and 1 full time clerk/secretary.
Our state professional organization got the state Board of regents to
endorse a staffing level that would benefit students, teachers, and
learning, but in our current fiscal climate, we'll be lucky to keep even the
state mandated levels without taking the school districts to court over it.
New York State Ed Dept. laws stipulate 1:1000
see if NJ has such a stipulation at their website
principals who don't understand libraries will often risk breaking the law to save
money on library staff - it happens here in NYC all the time
Cindi,
I am the chair of a task force for AASL on quantitative measures. My task
force just submitted a report to the executive board of AASL in which we
reported on every state as to whether they have quanitative measures.
NJ says this about staffing:
Staffing ? School Level: Each school should have a minimum of one or more
certificated library media specialists working full-time. Each school
must employ at least one full time technical assistant or clerk for each
library media specialist.
Wish I had better news for you. I live in TN. Our standards require 2
full-time certified librarians for schools over 1500.
Nancy
dickinson1@k12tn.net
Hi Cynthia,
From one NJ county to another - here's a TEXAS site that is awesome ! Go to
page 15 to see a chart that answers your
question.
http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/ld/schoollibs/slsAdopted2005.pdf
I am a middle school librarian, work alone, but only have 600 students, so I
can't imagine what you're going through !
Good luck,
Diane Diane Lungaro
dianelu@yahoo.com
I don't know if this will help. Click on this NYS site and then look at the
rubric for libraries (it has something about librarian/student ratios):
http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/nyc/library.html Best of luck
with your
situation.
You might want to check your state ed. requirements. NY requires 1 full time
librarian for every 1000 students
for secondary schools. Maybe NJ is similiar?
İş°¨¨°şİİş°¨¨°şİİş°¨¨°şİİş°¨¨°şİİş°¨¨°şİİş°¨¨°şİ
Cynthia Ortiz
Hackensack School District
mailto:c.ortiz@hackensackschools.org
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