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.
All 77 of North Carolina’s libraries are profiled in the book; most of them are relatively poorly funded but not in the bottom bracket, with 56% spending $12 to $20.99 (compared to 19% overall). Just as no library is in the top spending bracket, so none circulates 24 or more items per capita—and only 16% circulate eight or more (compared to 50% overall). Except for one anomalous library, spending and circulation correlate well. Where there’s low circulation, there also tend to be fairly few patron visits—as is the case here, where 27% of libraries have at least five visits per capita (compared to 54% overall). Program attendance is also low, with 21% of libraries having at least 0.4 attendance per capita (compared to 42% overall). Similarly, PC use is low: 22% report at least 1.3 uses per capita, compared to 43% overall.
Libraries by legal service area
| LSA | Count | % |
| 4,000-5,299 | 2 | 2.6% |
| 8,700-11,099 | 2 | 2.6% |
| 11,100-14,099 | 1 | 1.3% |
| 14,100-18,499 | 1 | 1.3% |
| 18,500-24,999 | 3 | 3.9% |
| 25,000-34,499 | 3 | 3.9% |
| 34,500-53,999 | 13 | 16.9% |
| 54,000-104,999 | 21 | 27.3% |
| 105,000-4.1 mill. | 31 | 40.3% |
Circulation per capita and spending per capita
Circulation per capita correlates very strongly (0.73) with spending per capita.
Circulation per capita plotted against spending per capita
Circulation per capita (rounded) occurrence by spending category
