It's that time of year when the data geek in me loves examining the collection and circulation statistics of the preceding 180 days of school.
Looking at the statistics from the last three years, I can see that circulation has dropped by about 2,000, which is a lot, which could be due to a number of factors: my reduced time in my school building this year, which impacted my ability to send out reminder notices and therefore books were not being returned in a timely manor and then available to borrowing by another students; planning and instruction of library classes that did not allow for enough time for browsing and borrowing; an aging collection that doesn't not hold as much appeal to students, specifically students in the older grades; and/or a small collection.
I weeded the fiction section last year and hoped to see a jump in circulation for this neighborhood. There was a jump, but only by 200 and a 3% increase, which is lower than I was hoping, but an improvement.
Nonfiction circulations fell by 2,000, which is really surprising, but possibly related to both the fact that I was not able to send out reminders for overdue books and the weeding that I did. There were many books dating back to the seventies, eighties, and nineties that I weeded last year, so there were just fewer to browse.
The jump in biographies is exciting and a direct correlation to a few biographies lessons and projects that I integrated into the curriculum. It's good to see the impact projects can have on the books students choose to borrow.
Picture books and early readers both dropped, which is again surprising. I'll have to think about this for a bit. I didn't really participate in Picture Book Month, so maybe that's the reason.
Graphic Novels increased, which is a result of the new books that I purchased this year. This area is always heavily used and if I had even more graphic novels I know the circulation would continue to increase.
I also ran statistics for the top borrowers and top homerooms. I love what this grid shows. We have a fairly even distribution of both girls and boys in the top borrowers for the year. I like this data. It tells me that students see themselves as readers in this library regardless of gender.
That all four third grade classrooms made it into the top ten of our twenty-two classroom is fabulous. I have been thinking about this information. I see third grade on Monday, which is sometimes hard because of the Monday holidays. Also, these classes run back-to-back, so there is no wiggle room for browsing and borrowing. On the plus side, the curriculum this year has also been more literature focused. Also, we have 106 children in this grade level, so they are the largest grade level (the others are between 95 and 100. All interesting things to think about.
All three of the second grade classrooms made the list as did two of the three first grade classrooms. These students have an extended library class, so it makes sense to me that they would rank this high.
I love that fourth grade outlier class. I tend to lose some 4th and 5th grade readers from this library for a number of reasons: parents who support their learning habits by buying books; a public library just down the street; and, a smaller and aging collection that isn't quite meeting their needs.
Top 10 Homerooms
We'll see what next year brings!
