Middle Grade Monday – the Tiny Budget Dilemma
My library has a tiny budget. Actually, that’s not true. My library has no budget. The books we are able to procure for our collection come mostly from the proceeds from our twice annual book fair, supplemented by donations and finds at the public library book sale. We recently completed our spring book fair. We pulled some books from the fair, and we will have some Scholastic dollars to spend once everything clears, but we were able to place a small order with one of our vendors. When your library serves 6th through 8th grades, though, the portion of those funds that end up going to middle grades titles are even smaller.
To be honest, every order we place is a combination of replacements for lost titles, new award winners, a couple of curricular tie ins with popular appeal, and only the most requested others. Here are the middle grade titles we received with this order:
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The three of the four nonfiction titles are recent African American interest titles. They do support our 8th grade social studies curriculum, but they also help to build up our somewhat meager number of titles in this area. Our student population is generally 50% African American. I’m not sure what the goal of the opening day collection was, but it didn’t adequately address the interests of this portion of our population. Fully 95% of the non-fiction we order is middle grades, because that’s where our students are reading. We also received How to Speak Dog, which I have high hopes for attracting some of our more reluctant readers.
Both Smile and the two copies of One Crazy Summer are high demand replacements. And two copies of P.S. Be Eleven, because it is a sequel, won awards, and is, frankly, genius. One Crazy Summer and P.S. Be Eleven are also high demand because of the book talks I do on them. The books I love circulate more, especially among the 6th graders. The students know. Because of this, I have high hopes for A Summer of Sundays, even though similar titles are slow movers in my collection. I loved it. You can read my review here.
I was so excited when Doll Bones was recognized with a Newbery honor medal. Everything Holly Black publishes is pure gold with my students, and I’m sure this will not be the exception. One Came Home was the other Newbery honor book from this year that I thought might appeal to our population. Unfortunately, after I placed the order, I found out that it was Flora and Ulysses that was chose for the state Battle of the Books list. That’s always a struggle. It’s much to young for the vast majority of my students, but now we will need to find a way to purchase it. It’s not often that the Stonewall award is given to a book that I feel will really suit my middle grade readers, so I am excited to see how Better Nate than Ever moves. We have a fairly significant population of students who’ve expressed (at least to me) an interest in GLBTQ titles.
Finally, there is Who Done It? which looks like a great, fun way to introduce students to a variety of authors. the list of middle grade titles we had to hold off on for next time, as well as the ones that were out of stock, is too long to go into. Cross your fingers for us that these titles will get a lot of use and not get lost!
Filed under: Middle Grade Monday
About Karen Jensen, MLS
Karen Jensen has been a Teen Services Librarian for almost 30 years. She created TLT in 2011 and is the co-editor of The Whole Library Handbook: Teen Services with Heather Booth (ALA Editions, 2014).
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After over a decade of an extremely healthy budget ($10,000 or more), this year only my databases were funded–no money for books at all. It has been a phenomenal adjustment for me. I was able to go to my PTO and get a couple hundred dollars, and they also sent out a wish list for me and parents purchased copies of Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck, Allegiant, and a few more “hot” titles. But, like you, my book fairs have been my chief source of new books. I am concerned about how I might afford the state choice award titles, too–especially since I am used to getting multiple copies. I have never before felt like every single book had to be one that would have wide appeal. I appreciate any future tips/advice you can share.
It is comforting to know that I am not the only librarian dealing with absolutely no budget. Charter schools in Texas do not require libraries, so my entire library is run on donations and book fair proceeds– that is, if the principal allows me to redeem the money in scholastic dollars rather than just take all of the cash. It took the school five months to pay scholastic back because the principal took the cash earned from the book fair and spent it. The Book Fair Rep had to literally harass him in order to get their money.
As you mentioned, my budget goes to replacing books.The school charges the child for the lost book, but the school takes the money and does not ever give it to the library. (Which begs the question– what is he doing with all of that money? But that's another story.)
As I'm sure you're aware, scholastic rarely has books from the middle of a series, so there are many holes in series as well. If there is any money left, it goes towards name that book, and the books are never touched again afterwards.
Maybe some day the Harmony Public Schools, and your schools as well, will start caring about their library.
It can be very discouraging. I can only say “keep banging the advocacy drum.”
I'm going to do another Donor's Choose grant – this time for my state's middle school YA book award titles. Cross your fingers!
This is my life, all wrapped up in one post.
I'm in a charter district, at a campus that serves grades 3-8, with not nearly enough space to accommodate having a varied collection. I'm new this year, and the library is still just a couple of years old, so I'm fighting an uphill battle trying to weed what the previous librarian thought was “good material” for the collection, as well as add to areas that have next to nothing. My biography and middle school (6-8) sections are abysmal. So most of my money has gone to purchasing books for those sections. And I've been working with the students to find out what they want to read, so my money is well spent. I get the final judgment on what's appropriate to purchase.
I coordinate the box tops program at my campus, so all proceeds go to the library, and I don't have to split it with the rest of the teachers.
She did a lot of fundraising and donations, so there's plenty of money for me to work with currently. But my budget from the school, $500 for the year, that goes towards supplies.
My question: how do you handle paperback books? Or do you purchase all hardcover / library binding?