2015-16 HTHS Library Annual Report
Total Circulation
I'm only including the years that I've been working at HTHS in my report since I had nothing to do with the numbers in years previous. There's only been a 2% increase in total circulation, but when I broke down the circulation I found that there was a larger number of renewals and in-house usage (that is items used inside the library) in years previous. The numbers for checked out items actually rose 21% this year!
Total Collaborations
Since Mrs. Speegle retired and I'm the only media specialist at the high school, the teacher collaborations dropped by a little over half. I'm hopeful that I can still get this number up in future years as I build relationships with all the teachers and share new ideas.
Items in Our Library
There was a 22% decrease in items this year because Mrs. Speegle and I did a huge and much-needed weed of the collection last summer. I'm convinced the collection hadn't been weeded very well since the school was located in the Cahaba Elementary building! There's plenty of room for growth on the shelves, though, so I'm hoping to build the collection back up with some fantastic new material.
What Are We Checking Out?
Fiction, as always, is the big player here. The graph makes it seem that equipment is the big one, but there are reasons my equipment circulation when up so much. When we first got the chromebooks, I made students check them out to use them in the library. I have since stopped doing that because it was more trouble than it was worth. They now simply grab one from the cart, use it, and put it back. It's been working out pretty well! We also added calculators to the collection that students can check out if they forget theirs at home. I think I'll move those to their own circulation class for next year.
Top 6 Fiction Books
I took out the assigned books when I chose the top books so this could be a picture of what students were choosing for leisure reading or choice reading.
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
The Maze Runner by James Dashner
Paper Towns by John Green
City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
The Martian by Andy Weir
Payback Time by Carl Deuker
Top 6 Nonfiction Books
The Real ACT Prep Guide
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
Born to Run by Christopher McDougall
Criminal Masterminds by Anne Williams
Elena Vanishing by Elena Dunkle
The Teenage Brain by Frances E. Jensen
Well-Read Teachers!
To be fair, Ms. Bowers and Ms. Herring did check out a couple of carts of books for their classes to use this year. Mrs. deShazo is just a reading machine and fantastic library patron.
Well-Read Students!
I know these three are huge readers but they're also huge library patrons. Thanks, guys!
Best-Read Grade: Seniors!
The seniors are going out with a bang and with the largest circulation this year by far! Congrats, guys, and good luck in future! I hope you read something you liked and learned something that will help you during your life.
Fun Facts about HTHS Library
Average Copyright Date
Even though we did a lot of weeding last summer ,we still have a pretty old Average copyright date, so there's more work to be done with weeding and replacing old items with newer alternatives.
Total number of Items
As I said, we saw a drop in the number of items this year due to weeding. If we have a few more great years of additions, we should be able to get to a full but comfortable place in the shelving.
Month of Highest Circulation
February saw 941 circulations! I imagine a lot of this is due to it being the beginning of research season in the English department.
Items added vs. Items Deleted
981 additions in one year is quite a lot when looking at the historical data. I still have tons of donations in the work room to add, too! I'm hoping for another year of many additions to the library collection.
Value of Complete Collection
This library is expensive! The largest section, of course, is the equipment at a whopping $63,000.
Average Circulation per Student
I pulled this number based on my total circulation and the number of students in my library system, which was about 1,445. That means the average circulation is almost 4 items per student.
New This Year!
Thank You!
Thanks to everyone for a wonderful year! I had a fantastic group of library aides. I worked with some awesome and hilarious students. I also have some amazing coworkers. It's so great to work with friends! I'm already working on plans for next year and I have a feeling it's going to be just as great as this year.