Managing the Message: Using Output Measures for School Library Media Programs

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Managing the Message Using Output Measures for
School Library Media Programs

• Frances Bryant Bradburn
• Director, Instructional Technology
• North Carolina Department of Public Instruction

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In a middle school media center of 625 students,
the average turnover rate of the collection per
year is 4.3
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• Output Measures are a mathematical method of
  representing a given situation over a specific
  period of time.

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Why would we be interested in collecting
output measures anyway?

• Show what works and doesn't work
• Document and analyze program as well as resources
  
• Help justify additional funding, staff, or
  schedule

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Two Types of Measures

• Use Measures
• Places and things
• The what of the media center
• Access Measures
• People and things
• The how of the media center

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Use Measures

• Media Center Use Measures
• Materials Use Measures

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Why Calculate Use Measures?

• Present an accurate picture of the overall use of
  both a facility and its collection.
• Divided into two areas
• Media Center Use Measures (student, teacher,
  subject, grade level)
• Materials Use Measures (circulation rate,
  in-library use rate, turnover rate, etc.)
• Easiest output measures to gather and analyze

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Media Center Use Rate

• How many teachers, students, administrators, and
  parents use your media center every day.
• Log daily
• Summarize weekly

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Circulation Rate

• Number of items circulated per student over the
  school year.

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20,872 books circulated
Circulation Rate

625 students
Circulation Rate of book collection 33.4
books/student/year
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In-library Use Rate

• Number of resources being used within the media
  center at a specific time.
• Materials not checked out, but used within the
  media center by students or teachers.
• Count up all the resources used during a single
  class period or school day. Tally for one week.

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1,572 books/week x 36 weeks/year
56,592 books/year
In-library Use Rate

625 students
In-library Use Rate 90.5 books/student/year
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Flashcard Time!
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In a middle school media center of 625 students,
the average turnover rate of the collection per
year is 4.3
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Calculating Turnover Rate

• This is a Materials Use Measure.
• Measures the average number of times a given item
  within a collection circulates during the year.
• Can include in-library use rate.
• Easy to calculate with an automated circulation
  system

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circulations and uses
Turnover Rate

items in collection
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77,564 books circulated/used
Turnover Rate

18,000 items in collection
Turnover Rate of book collection 4.3
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Equipment Use Rate

• Amount of time a piece of equipment is being used
  during the school day.
• We will gather 2 measures
• OPAC use
• Internet station use

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Total users and those waiting to use equipment
Equipment Use Rate

of pieces of equipment
To express as a percentage, multiply by 100.
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10 users of OPAC 2nd period
Equipment Use Rate

5 OPAC computers
OPAC use rate 2nd period 200
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Access Measures

• Resource Availability Measures (potential
  curriculum support rate, curriculum support fill
  rate, etc.)
• Media Specialist Availability Measures (planning
  opportunity rate, teaching availability rate,
  etc.)

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Resource Availability Measures
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Flashcard Time!
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The potential curriculum support rate is 100 for
a new earth science course 48 for a proposed
British drama course.
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Figuring Potential Curriculum Support Rate

• Measures the collections potential to support an
  individual schools curriculum.
• Start small! Choose one particular course or
  subject area.
• Look at all areas of the collection, not just the
  specific Dewey number. Include the reference
  collection and fiction titles.
• Use the chart on pg. 22 as your baseline.

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Minimum Curricular Unit Materials for a Single
Class
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items available in collection
Potential Curriculum Support Rate

X
.20 (or 20)
items needed for unit or course
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Minimum Curricular Unit Materials for a Single
ClassSecondary Numbers
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Secondary 10 British drama books 1 class
10 items available in collection
Potential Curriculum Support Rate

X
.20 (or 20)
items needed for unit or course
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Secondary 10 British drama books 1 class
10 items available in collection
Potential Curriculum Support Rate

X
.20 (or 20)
25 items needed for unit or course
Potential Curriculum Support Rate for books is 8
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Minimum Curricular Unit Materials for a Single
ClassSecondary Numbers
8
10
0
0
1 online database
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1 ency/ 5 Inet stations
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0
0
Potential Curriculum Support Rate 48
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Elementary 25 bird books 1 class
25 items available in collection
Potential Curriculum Support Rate

X
.20 (or 20)
items needed for unit or course
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Minimum Curricular Unit Materials for a Single
ClassElementary Numbers
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Elementary 25 bird books 1 class
25 items available in collection
Potential Curriculum Support Rate

X
.20 (or 20)
50 items needed for unit or course
Potential Curriculum Support Rate for books is 10
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Elementary 1 encyclopedia no bird software 1
class
1 items available in collection
Potential Curriculum Support Rate

X
.20 (or 20)
items needed for unit or course
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Elementary 1 encyclopedia no bird software 1
class
1 items available in collection
Potential Curriculum Support Rate

X
.20 (or 20)
2 items needed for unit or course
Potential Curriculum Support Rate for electronic
resources is 10.
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Minimum Curricular Unit Materials for a Single
ClassElementary Numbers
10
25
10
1 ency no CDs/ Inet
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Minimum Curricular Unit Materials for a Single
ClassElementary Numbers
25
10
20
2
1 database
20
1 ency no CDs/ Inet
10
20
1
Potential Curriculum Support Rate 80
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Whole Grade Level/Whole School?

• Multiply each category of books by 2/3s the
  number of students using them at the same time.
• More general resources (electronic/AV) can be
  shared so their number does not have to increase
  (although it would be nice-)

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Flashcard Time!
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During a 4th grade weather project, the teacher
curriculum support fill rate is 90, while the
fourth grade student curriculum support fill rate
is 50.
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Curriculum Support Fill Rate

• Calculates how effectively your collection is
  supporting your schools curriculum
• Teacher opinion
• Student opinion
• Requires surveying both populations

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appropriate curriculum-related items found
Curriculum Support Fill Rate

items sought by teachers/students for
coursework
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7 appropriate curriculum-related items found
Curriculum Support Fill Rate

14 items sought by teachers/students for
coursework
Student Curriculum Support Fill Rate is 50
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18 appropriate curriculum-related items found
Curriculum Support Fill Rate

20 items sought by teachers/students for
coursework
Teacher Curriculum Support Fill Rate is 90
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Flashcard Time!
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In the month of April, your teaching availability
rate was 40, allowing you to fill 17 out of the
42 requests from teachers.
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In the month of April, you had a 0 grade-level
planning opportunity rate.
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Also during the month of April, your media
specialist availability rate for students was
55, helping only 327 of the students of the 592
who requested assistance.
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• During the month of April,
• your media specialist availability rate for
  students was 55, helping only 327 of the
  students of the 592 who requested assistance.
• you had a 0 grade-level planning opportunity
  rate, thus unable to meet with an entire grade
  level of teachers any time during the month.
• your teaching availability rate was 40, allowing
  you to fill only 17 out of the 42 requests from
  teachers.

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75 of your troubleshooting requests require that
you leave the media center during regular school
hours.
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Media Specialist Availability Measures

• Planning Opportunity Rate
• Teaching Availability Rate
• Troubleshooting Request Rate
• Remember these are Access Measures--access to
  YOU!

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Media Specialist Availability Summary Chart
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Types of Requests

• Filled Can be accomplished immediately and
  completely.
• Modified Cannot be filled immediately, but can
  be accomplished within a reasonable period of
  time or through an agreeable compromise.
• Unfilled Cannot be be accomplished within a
  reasonable period of time or through an agreeable
  compromise.

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Media Specialist Availability Rate

• Measures the amount of time a media specialist
  consults with individual students and teachers
  about their research/information needs.
• Uses the same data to calculate
• Planning Opportunity Rate
• Teaching Availability Rate
• Troubleshooting Request Rate

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modified or unfilled individual student or
teacher requests
Media Specialist Availability
_

100
individual student or teachers requests
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Media Specialist Availability Summary Chart
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327 modified or unfilled individual student
requests
Media Specialist Availability
_

100
592 individual student requests
Your Student Media Specialist Availability Rate
is 55.
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Planning Opportunity Rate

• Measures the percentage of time a media
  specialist is able to fill completely a teachers
  or teams request for assistance in planning a
  lesson or unit of instruction.
• Uses Media Specialist Availability data.

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modified or unfilled planning requests
Planning Opportunity Rate
_

100
planning requests received from teachers
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Media Specialist Availability Summary Chart
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12 modified or unfilled planning requests
Planning Opportunity Rate
_

100
16 planning requests received from teachers
Overall Planning Opportunity Rate is 25,
however, the Team Planning Opportunity Rate is
0.
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Teaching Availability Rate

• Percentage of time that the media specialist is
  available to work with individuals, small groups,
  or whole classes at the specific request of a
  teacher.
• Uses same data as Planning Opportunity Rate.
• Does not include fixed schedules of classes!

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modified or unfilled teaching requests
Teaching Availability Rate
_
100

teaching requests received from teachers
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Media Specialist Availability Summary Chart
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17 modified or unfilled teaching requests
Teaching Availability Rate
_
100

42 teaching requests received from teachers
Your Teaching Availability Rate is 40.
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Troubleshooting Request Rate

• Calculates any request for assistance in solving
  an equipment problem.
• Helps you determine the loss of instructional
  support time for teachers and students.
• Note especially the amount of time required
  outside the media center!

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Total requests per week
Average requests daily

5 days per week
Total time spent tshooting
Average hours tshooting per day

days
requests requiring leaving media center
tshooting requiring leaving media center

Total tshooting requests
requests that interrupted instructional time
tshooting interrupting instruction

Total tshooting requests
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Data Collection

• One full week in February (5 days)
• If snow day, gather data the next week on the
  same day (i.e. snow day Monday, make up day the
  next Monday)
• Deadline for completed documents
• March 15, 2004

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Electronic Documents to

• Dr. Amy Overbay, NCSU
• Amy_Overbay_at_ncsu.edu
• Cc to Frances Bradburn
• fbradbur_at_dpi.state.nc.us

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Mail Artifacts

• Dr. Amy Overbay,
• IMPACT Project
• Department of Curriculum and Instruction
• 602E Stinson Drive, Poe Hall
• North Carolina State University
• Raleigh, NC 27695-7801

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What Output Measures Would You Use?
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Data Gathering Strategies

• Use statistics Mid-January - Mid-February
• Calculate Potential Curriculum Support Rate
  (during pre-holiday/exam time?)
• Install a front-end program on computers to
  calculate Electronic Resources Hit Rate
• Calculate Student Curriculum Support Rate
• Survey (2)Honors World History classes
• Survey (2) Average Junior English classes
• Survey (2) Career English classes (Seniors)

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Potential Curriculum Support Rate
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Potential Curriculum Support Rate
10
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Potential Curriculum Support Rate
10
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Potential Curriculum Support Rate
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Online database
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Potential Curriculum Support Rate 80
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Potential Curriculum Support Rate
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What Output Measures Would You Use?
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Data Gathering Strategy
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Flashcard Time!