Kentucky public libraries

Another post commenting on Chapter 20 of Give Us a Dollar and We’ll Give You Back Four (2012-13)–now available as a $9.99 Kindle ebook or $21.95 paperback with ISBN 978-1481279161 on Amazon, along with the usual Lulu options.

The 113 profiled libraries (four omitted) are mostly in the lower half of funding, with two-thirds spending between $12 and $30.99. Circulation also clusters somewhat low, with only 13% circulating at least 10 items per capita (compared to 38% overall) and 30% circulating 6 to 7.99. Expenditures do correlate with circulation—and that’s also true on the budget side, except that the single library spending $73 or more per capita has lower circulation per capita than most of those spending $53 to $72.99. No Kentucky library falls into the top bracket for patron visits per capita, and more than half have less than four (compared to 35% nationally); in this case, the budget table shows rising median visits per capita in every bracket.

Program attendance is just a little on the low side (mostly because only one library—not one of the better-funded ones—has 1.1 or more attendance per capita); PC use is distinctly low, with only 28% of libraries having at least 1.3 uses per capita (compared to 43% overall).

Libraries by legal service area

LSA Count % Outliers
1,650-2,249 1 0.9%
4,000-5,299 1 0.9% 1
5,300-6,799 2 1.8%
6,800-8,699 7 6.2%
8,700-11,099 6 5.3% 1
11,100-14,099 18 15.9%
14,100-18,499 19 16.8%
18,500-24,999 15 13.2% 1
25,000-34,499 13 11.5% 1
34,500-53,999 15 13.3%
54,000-104,999 11 9.7%
105,000-4.1 mill. 5 4.4%

Circulation per Capita and Spending per Capita

Circulation per capita in Kentucky libraries correlates strongly (0.64) with spending per capita.

Circulation per capita plotted against spending per capita

Circulation per capita (rounded) occurrence by spending category

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