Paid FTE Librarians per 25,000 population, 1991-2002

Abstract

All groups but the smallest gained librarians. Not that this use of "librarian" is not the same as ALA -MLS librarians which are dealt with separately. The decline seen here in the number of librarians at the smallest libraries is an artifact of the data which has a number of anomalous and unbelievable values. These are discussed below under "Anomalous Values." This analysis suggests that this kind of ratio is of less value for smaller libraries.

There is a Rank Order Table for this variable in 2002 and a summary table of the ranks by state from 1992-2002.

Note: The value for the Town of Ulster Public Library, Kinston, New York (newkey = NY0259) for POPU_UND for 1992 was 8,478, 1993 was 1, and 1994 was 11,507. In this analysis, the value for 1993 was changed to 9,993, the mean of the 1992 and 1994 figures.

Anomalous Values

See a similar discussion at Staff Expenditures per capita

The dip seen between 1995 and 1996 in the First Quartile libraries is reflected in a similar dip in the data for Total Staff. Is what the analysis discloses real, is it an artifact in the data, or of the calculations themselves?

We can't answer the question exactly because there are peculiar values in the series that may or may not be correct but the calculation of the ratio of librarians per unduplicated population of 25,000 has a characteristic that the very smallest libraries can have minor changes in staff or population served and have dramatic drops in the ratio. The 2002 Rank Order Table for this variable has a high of 8.49, a low of 1.95 and a mean of 4.05. However, look at this series for Brownell Public Library, Brownwell, Kansas (newkey = KS0280):

There are about 2,000 libraries reporting in 1995 and 1996 and this ratio, as we can see, is very prone to disruption by the smallest values. Be that as it may, we have a drop in this ratio from one library in 1996 of almost 450, in other words, this one library causes the average of all of the First Quartile libraries to drop over 4 by itself--or more than the average value for 2002. This not by any means the only example in this group of libraries and it appears that a number of examples come from Kansas. That is, Kansas has a number of libraries serving a small populations with a small and changing number of paid librarians. There are also situations where the numbers seem incorrect. For instance, Stockton, Kansas Public Library (newkey=KS0037) in 2001 is reported to have had 1,555 population served and 32.72 librarians for a ratio of 526.05.

October 20, 2004