Buzzzzzz.....Consortial ILS in Colorado

Based on interest expressed at the May 2008 Colorado Public Library Directors (CPLD) meeting, a survey was developed by LRS and distributed by James LaRue (Director of Douglas County Libraries) through the CPLD email list. The purpose was to assess existing hardware, software, and personnel costs associated with existing integrated library systems (ILS) in public libraries, as well as gauge interest in a statewide consortial ILS. The results of this survey are now available at: http://www.lrs.org/technology/ils/.

Links on the page include:
* Public Library ILS Survey Results Summary
* Survey Report & Results
* Open Source ILS - CO Libraries Task Force
* What's with all this ILS talk?

~Nicolle
steffen_n@cde.state.co.us

Academic, Public, School, Special Libraries

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America's Children in Brief: Key National Indicators of Well-Being 2008

From ChildStats.gov, "The annual report profiles the status of the nation's children and youth, presenting up-to-date federal statistics in one convenient reference. The National Center for Education Statistics in the Institute of Education Sciences is one of the 22 federal agencies that participate in the Forum [Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics] and contribute to the report. The report documents that mathematics and reading scores of fourth and eighth graders have increased, but shows as well that the adolescent birth rate and the proportion of infants born at low birthweight have also risen. The report also includes indicators on child poverty, health care, housing, and at-risk behavior."

Key links:
America's Children at a Glance: http://www.childstats.gov/americaschildren/glance.asp
Education: http://www.childstats.gov/americaschildren/edu.asp
Complete report: http://www.childstats.gov/americaschildren/index.asp

~Nicolle
steffen_n@cde.state.co.us

School, Public

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National Data on Academic Libraries Released by NCES

The "Academic Libraries: 2006 First Look" report has just been released by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

According to the report, in 2006 the nation’s 3,600 academic libraries…
* Had 144.1 million circulation transactions
* Loaned 10.8 million documents to other libraries and borrowed 10.3 million
* Held 1 billion books and other paper materials
* Employed 93,600 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff, including 26,500 FTE librarians
* Had $6.2 billion in total expenditures with $3.1 billion spent on salaries and wages
* 72% provided reference service by e-mail or the Web

According to NCES, “This report provides a statistical profile of the libraries serving postsecondary, two- and four-year degree-granting institutions in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The report includes information on services, collections, staff, revenue, and expenditures. The data were collected through the Academic Libraries Survey (ALS…”

Report: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2008337
Compare Academic Libraries: http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/libraries/compare/Index.asp
NCES: http://nces.ed.gov/

~Nicolle
steffen_n@cde.state.co.us

Academic

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Public Library Statistics Available

2007 Public Library Statistics are now available for libraries in Colorado. Public libraries throughout the state completed their portions of the 2007 Public Library Annual Report this spring, and we have now completed state and federal edit checks to ensure the quality of the data.

Check out the stats at http://www.lrs.org/pub_stats.php.

Zeth
lietzau_z@cde.state.co.us

Public

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Research Studies at ALA

While I was at ALA, I had the chance to be exposed to several sessions that presented research that is in a very similar vein to what we're doing here at the LRS. I'll mention three such studies that I was able to learn about:

The University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill is doing a study that is very close to our hearts - the Workforce Issues in Library & Information Science (http://www.wilis.unc.edu/index.html). They're treating it as a two-step process. First, they've surveyed LIS graduates from their school dating to 1964, and are currently processing that data. Next, they will be using what they've done to attempt to develop a model for career tracking of LIS graduates. It should be interesting to see what they come up with.

Second, Old Dominion University is conducting an exploratory study of the relationship between National Board Certification (NBC) in Library Media and Information Science (LMS) and student academic achievement http://www.lrs.org/impact.php.

Finally, I got to sit in on a session presented by OCLC which discussed their study, "From Awareness to Funding: A study of library support in America" (http://www.oclc.org/reports/funding/default.htm). They're analyzing the data from a very large study of library support that found, among many other things, that the library's most committed funding supporters are not the heaviest library users.

Though all of these studies are still in the data analysis stage at the moment, I look forward to seeing what comes from them.

Zeth
lietzau_z@cde.state.co.us

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Colorado Library Districts Show Greater Increases in Public Use and Financial Support than Other Public Library Types

This latest issue of Fast Facts compares libraries districts to their non-district peers to determine if they continued to show strong financial stability since the budget cuts of 2002. And if library districts have increased their funding more than non-district libraries, have they also increased the utilization of their resources and materials more than the other library types?

See the Fast Facts article here: http://www.lrs.org/documents/fastfacts/260_PL_districts_jur.pdf

Comment on the article here: http://www.lrs.org/blog/

Jennifer French
Senior Research Analyst
Library Research Service

FastFacts, Public

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Who Knew?... Summer Reading Fun Facts

Summer reading programs are an integral part of public library culture, and many libraries strive to serve all ages including children, young adults, and adults. Some fun facts about summer reading include:

• In the summer of 2007, nearly 205,000 Colorado children participated in summer reading at their public library. In fact, over the past 10 years, approximately 1.5 million participants registered for summer reading programs at Colorado public libraries.

• Children in every income group who read six or more books over the summer gain more in reading achievement than children who do not.

• On average, children from low-income families lose nearly three months of grade-level equivalency during the summer months each year, compared to an average of one month lost by middle-income children.

• Despite some studies that claim teenagers are reading less than ever before, in January 2005 the Gallup organization asked 1,078 teenagers, ages 13-17 about the books they read for pleasure over the last six months. 82% said they had read at least one book.

• Libraries have used blogs as a platform for presenting adult summer reading programs to their patrons. The creator of Maggie Reads (http://www.maggiereads.blogspot.com) notes that in the summer of 2007, her first blog-based reading challenge prompted comments by over 80 bloggers in the community.

The Colorado State Library provides additional summer reading resources for libraries at:
http://www.cde.state.co.us/cdelib/SummerReading/

Sources (in order of being quoted):

http://www.cde.state.co.us/cdelib/SummerReading/Downloads/pdf/SummerReadingPressRelease_CSL.pdf

http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/libdev/summer/research.htm

http://www.cde.state.co.us/cdelib/SummerReading/Downloads/pdf/PreventSummerSetback_English08.pdf

http://sdkrashen.com/pipermail/krashen_sdkrashen.com/2005-July/000182.html

Maggie Moran. (2008). Reading + blogging: One perfect adult summer reading program. Mississippi Libraries, 72(1), p. 6-8.

WhoKnew, Public

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School Library Cohort, 2005-2007: Trends to Watch

A new Fast Facts from Library Research Service examines the trends evident among a cohort of school libraries that have consistently responded to the annual Colorado School Library Survey. These trends include more group visits to the library, a greater emphasis on technology, increased circulation, and more frequent use of interlibrary loan.

Fast Facts: http://www.lrs.org/fastfacts/index.php?year=2008

-Amanda
arybin@du.edu

FastFacts, School

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Colorado Public Libraries Help Children Get Ready to Read

The latest Fast Facts explores Every Child Ready to Read (ECRR) literacy-enhanced programing in 13 public library jurisdictions in Colorado. The Fast Facts concludes, "Through training, advocacy, and ongoing support, Colorado's libraries are working collaboratively to foster and promote early literacy to benefit residents in all areas of the state."

Fast Facts: http://www.lrs.org/fastfacts/index.php?year=2008

~Nicolle
steffen_n@cde.state.co.us

Public

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Viability of Librarianship - Share Your Opinion

"Librarianship as viable career" is the liveliest discussion we've seen on libnet in awhile. Obviously many of us feel passionately about being librarians and have strong opinions about the value of an MLIS degree.

Of course, at the LRS we'd like to capture some of these opinions. Help us out by answering a few short questions about this hot topic at: http://surveys.lrs.org/respond.php?sid=31.

This anonymous 60-second survey is intended to capture your gut-reaction to questions about the value of an MLIS degree and its impact on employment opportunities.

Survey at: http://surveys.lrs.org/respond.php?sid=31

Nicolle & Zeth
Library Research Service
Colorado State Library
www.LRS.org

Academic, Public, School, Special Libraries, LibraryWorkforce

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