About The SLJ Spending Survey 2007
-- School Library Journal, 1/1/2007
This is the eleventh in the SLJ series “Expenditures for Resources in School Library Media Centers”. These data were the result of a questionnaire mailed in February 2006, to 1140 individual school library media specialists. The respondents were selected by a systematic random sampling from SLJ's subscriber list covering the fifty states and D.C. After two follow-up mailings (March and April) to non-respondents, 582 responses were received for a 51% response rate. Of the 582 responses 529 were deemed usable for data analysis or 46%. A total of 71 usable/total responses were electronically submitted through the Web site SurveyMonkey.com©.
Of the 529 responses, 22% from the Northeast, 33% from the South, 29% from North Central, and 16% from the West. This mirrors the relative number of school libraries regionally according to National Center for Education Statistics data. There were minimal changes in the geographic and grade levels distributions from previous years’ surveys. Of the total responses 36 or 7% were from private schools and 93% were public. One noticeable difference was in the number of respondents in the “Other” category consisting of k-8 and k-12 schools. Since only 35 LMSs responded in this grade level category, data analysis for this group was limited.
Data analysis was completed using the Microsoft Excel© and Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS)©, Version 14. Means and medians were produced for all of the expenditures and collection items in the survey. Chi-square, means, and correlations were used to determine statistical significance as reported in the tables and text. Both means and medians are reported when possible to give the most accurate description of the results. The mean allows for comparison with other studies that used this measure, however the median may more accurately reflect actual expenditures and collection size reported by LMSs. The mean (or average) may be skewed both by LMCs with very low or very high reported expenditures or collection sizes.
Previous surveys appear in SLJ: October, 1983; May, 1985; June/July, 1987; June, 1989; August, 1991; October, 1993; October, 1995; October, 1999; October, 2001; and October, 2003.
The authors wish to thank Dr. Marilyn L. Miller for continuing to consult with survey development and reporting, the report would not exist without her leadership. Also, The authors thank Ms. Katie Farrington, Rowan University graduate assistant, for her dedication to the project. Finally, the survey results obviously would not exist without the generous cooperation of LMSs across the country; their willingness to locate and provide the needed statistics was crucial.Their efforts impact the profession profoundly.
