West Virginia public libraries

The penultimate 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. Note that Lulu prices for the paperback and hardback versions are now lower.

Most of this state’s 97 libraries (none omitted) are at the low end of funding: three-quarters spend less than $17 per capita, and more than half spend less than $12 (compared to 20% and 10% overall). Circulation is low, with only 7% circulating at least eight items per capita (compared to 50% overall) and two-thirds circulating less than four (compared to 21% overall).

Patron visits are also low, with only 16% hitting five visits per capita or above (compared to 54% overall). Other metrics are also on the low side.

Libraries by legal service area

LSA Count %
<700 1 1.0%
1,150-1,649 1 1.0%
1,650-2,249 2 2.1%
2,250-2,999 1 1.0%
3,000-3,999 7 7.2%
4,000-5,299 12 12.4%
5,300-6,799 11 11.3%
6,800-8,699 9 9.3%
8,700-11,099 10 10.3%
11,100-14,099 11 11.3%
14,100-18,499 8 8.2%
18,500-24,999 5 5.2%
25,000-34,499 5 5.2%
34,500-53,999 6 6.2%
54,000-104,999 7 7.2%
105,000-4.1 mill. 1 1.0%

Circulation per capita and spending per capita

Circulation per capita correlates very strongly (0.81) with spending per capita.

Circulation per capita plotted against spending per capita

Circulation per capita (rounded) occurrence by spending category

As may be obvious from the first graph, there are no libraries in the $43-$53.99 and $53-$72.99 spending categories.

Comments are closed.