Oklahoma School Libraries

*4/30/04 Update: The splendor and wonder that is Anne P. sent me this link to a presentation she used for Legislative Day Concerning Oklahoma Libraries-- there is some good info concerning School Libraries (we're rank #18). And the bonus with this presentation is she cites her sources!!!

I ran across an article which stated: In 2003 California ranked 51st among all the states in librarian-to-student ratio with one school librarian for every 4,379 students. The national average is one librarian for every 873 students.
So--being a librarian I was curious--Where does Oklahoma stand in the ranking of librarian to student ratios?
Awww the first step in research accomplished. A solid question.
I turn back to the article in question to find out where they obtained their data--and no where does it state from where they get their numbers. (*sigh* the burden of the librarian--dealing with halfa$$ citations/research).
So I turn to the California PTA website--and all I find is a press release of the original story. (*sigh* just like TV--if you say it 3--maybe 5--times on the internet it's true--I guess)
This is when I start talking to myself and ask, "Self...where do we go from here?" and I answer back, "Well, the NCES of course!" (See, all those years of working with Government Documents were good for something!)
Thus I head to the good ol' NCES and stop...2003, 2003....would a government agency have data out that is less than a year old? I mean they are still processing 2000 Census Data. Probably not, but I am a glutton for punishment so I dive on in and...I can't find anything. But I do find a couple of gems which give me some good information. I present to you a summation of figures from 1999-2000 for Oklahoma School Libraries.

~Public schools with library media centers 97.9%
~Schools with paid state-certified library media specialists 58.2% (27.9% have a part-time state-certified library media specialist)
---Of that 58.2% only 50.2% have a MLS or related degree
~72% of the library media centers out there have some sort of paid clerical staff
---22.2% have adult volunteers while 30.9% have student volunteers
~In regards to library visits
---11.1% have classes that regularly visit the library once every 2 weeks
---63.4% have classes that visit the library weekly
~88.7% of school libraries allow parents to borrow books as well as students
~Technology in the classroom
---12.9% of schools have library media specialists help teachers use the technology
---6.6% of schools have library media specialist set-up/maintain the technology

Oh...one more figure in Fall 1999 there were 627,032 students enrolled in Oklahoma schools and they were being served by 1,782 schools with library/media centers. So that means if you divide by...no wait...carry the one and find the square root of a right triangle or is the pi of a cherry. Oh, fudge. (ooo, cherry fudge black forest sundae)

!!! Okay so all I know is that we need more School Library Media Specialists. So go forth and multiply--or wait is it divide...oh shoot maybe I shouldn't have slept during Mr. Gibson's math classes.

Moral of this post: If you want to play with stats have someone good with numbers around and secondly-- if you are writing an article please say where you get your figures from so you don't give some librarian a headache tracking down your logic.