We polled area districts to see how we compare in staffing. We are the lowest.
The districts that responded were Aldine ISD, Alief ISD, Conroe ISD, Cy-Fair ISD, Humble ISD, Klein ISD, Lamar ISD, and Spring Branch ISD. We also had a few responses from other districts outside the Houston area. Those results are compiled here.
See the infographic here for a quick overall picture.
Area Librarians | Create infographics
Here is a spreadsheet with further details.
See specific responses below:
Alief ISD
I am in Alief ISD - 5A - and we have full time certified librarians at all campuses as well as full time library aides at all campuses. We have a district leader who recently began to supervise 5 others under her who deal exclusively with technology integration. Additionally, each campus has a dedicated technology specialist so that the librarian isn't responsible for integration on their own.
Conroe ISD has one campus librarian at 59 out of 60 schools. We are lacking a librarian at Hawke our alternative campus. That job is posted. It is a principals decision whether or not there is a library aide. We have a coordinator over the librarians who also does curriculum and technology .
Lamar CISD is a 5A district southwest of Houston. We have full time librarians with Masters degrees at each of our schools. We no longer have paras in the library (secondary did until about 4 years ago), and we do not have a district library department.
Atlanta Middle School
We are a small 4A school. We have four campuses; primary, elementary, middle school and high school. Of these campuses, three of the four have a full time certified librarian (elementary, middle and high). Middle and high have library aides. All students grades 7-12 have a school issued device and the libraries serve as a help desks; thus, the need for aides.
Brazosport ISD
1. Do you have full-time librarians at each/most campuses at all levels? Yes, or at least the position to be filled. Whenever possible, certified librarians are hired. When there aren't applicants, a full time person is put in place.
2. Do you have paraprofessionals/assistants at each/most campuses at all levels?No. Only the three high school libraries have paras, but they are full time. Of course, we'd like to have the para positions re-established and funded.
3. Do you have a district library department? No, but we have a district level person and a head librarian.
Brownsville ISD has full time elementary, MS, and high school librarians and para professional at each of our 52 campuses. Our 5 high schools even have 2 certified plus 2 paraprofessionals at each campus. We do have a library department and meet with it at lease twice a semester.
Dallas has full time degreed librarians at all campuses (or at least we do if we can find them to hire!). High school libraries have 2 librarians and, usually, a clerk. My library and school are small enough that we just have 2 librarians but no clerk.
Elementary doesn't have paraprofessionals. I don't know about middle schools.
There is a district library dept.
I came to Dallas from Richardson last year and still have many friends there so I can tell you about Richardson as well:
Yes to full-time degreed librarians
High schools have 3 paraprofessionals in each library (but only one librarian). Middle schools have either a full-time para or a half time (not sure why some have full time while others only half part-time)
Yes to district library department which includes a professional cataloger.
I wish you the best of luck-- school libraries NEED full time degreed librarians at ALL levels -- and student deserve it!
Elgin ISD has a full-time, degreed library professional at all campuses. I do believe one elementary has an assistant, but they may be utilized in other areas as well.
My library has two aides on Mondays and Thursdays that work extended library hours 4:30-7pm.
We do not have a district library department.
Grand Prairie has a library director , but she is also responsible for one of our campuses.
Our high schools have two Instructional Media Specialists and two aides apiece.
Our regular middle and elementary schools have an IMS every other day and an aide every other day.
Our specialty campuses have an IMS and an IMA daily. Our specialty campus include our fine arts schools, our gifted schools, etc.
Irving ISD has full time librarians at all levels. Clerks are at the discretion of the campus. Yes, we have a district library department with a director, secretary, an acquisitions clerk, a cataloger, and a systems clerk.
Midlothian ISD has a full-time certified librarian at every campus, K-12. Our high school library is also the public library. The high school and middle school libraries have full-time paraprofessionals. The elementary schools each have a paraprofessional that wears many hats: computer lab aide, in-school suspension, and library aide. Their assignments are at the discretion of the campus principal.
We have a director of instructional technology, and we have a union catalog. We use Destiny, so normally cataloging is quite easy if the item's ISBN is in the database. If not, we send the item in question to the high school librarian for cataloging.
Pearland ISD has certified librarians in all of the high schools and junior high schools. One of the four middle schools have a librarian. Four of the ten elementary schools have library managers. Schools are now allowed to "vote" on whether or not the school has a certified or non-certified librarian. Those that choose non certified are given the difference in salary for the school. We have a designated staff member at central office who is our "supervisor". Pearland ISD has certified librarians in all of the high schools and junior high schools. One of the four middle schools have a librarian. Four of the ten elementary schools have library managers. Schools are now allowed to "vote" on whether or not the school has a certified or non-certified librarian. Those that choose non certified are given the difference in salary for the school. We have a designated staff member at central office who is our "supervisor". Correction: one of the four middle schools has a library manager. One of the elementary schools just voted to have a certified librarian after the library manager resigned.
Perryton is a 4A school district. We do not have a district librarian. We have one full-time librarian for grades 1-5 with 3 full-time paras; one full-time librarian for grades 6-8 with full-time para; one full-time librarian for grades 9-12 with full time para. PreK and kindergarten are on a separate campus and are serviced by a para.
Pflugerville ISD
1. Yes, full time, certified librarians at all campuses
2. No paras
3. 1 secondary lead librarian (works full time in high school library)
1 elementary lead librarian (works full time in middle school library)
Prosper ISD is a district smaller than ours but rapidly growing (near Dallas), and their elementary schools are similar to ours in size. They tinkered with different types of staffing that did not work well and finally ended up fully staffing their libraries again.
I work in Prosper ISD, north of Dallas. We have 5 elementary schools all with about 800 students, 2 middle schools (one 5-6th; one 7-8th) both with about 1400 students, and 1 high school. We are growing so fast that we will be building at least one new school a year from here on out, and it still won't be adequate to meet the demand. We have a full time librarian and aide in each school. The secondary schools also have an Instructional Technology Specialist. At elementary, the librarian fulfills that role as well. We've been through various configurations in the last 5 years, losing aides, losing ITS, librarians sharing 2 campuses, but the district has seen that none of that works well. To really provide quality programming and effective resources to educators there has to be one librarian and one aide at each campus. Our aides run the day-to-day operations of the library, the circulation, shelving, clerical type things. This frees up the librarians to go to all team planning, collaborate with teachers and curriculum designers, provide special programs or clubs, research and find new resources, and do teaching of research skills and technology skills both to teachers and students. This is not possible without an aide and without having just one school. The librarian can share the load with the actual teachers. Even with our configuration there's not enough of us to go around. The services we provide are critical to student success and quality education, and the district has now really seen that and invested in having those positions and increasing those people's pay.
Rockwall ISD:
We have full time degreed and certified school librarians at all our schools.
We have no paraprofessional although by the numbers we should have them at a couple elementary, middle and the high school along with the librarian.
We don't have a district library department. The secondary ELAR coordinator is also over the libraries.
San Benito CISD
Almost all our campuses (16) have full time librarians. This is an off year for us as we have had unusual circumstances occur. Currently, we have 3 vacancies due to a retirement, an illness, and a reassignment. We have one high school, one ninth grade campus, three middle schools, and twelve elementary campuses. I am the high school librarian and receive a stipend for the coordinator duties. We have monthly meetings and try our best to keep our department status. With the exception of 2 campuses, all have one para professional assisting in the library, although they are often pulled for subbing and duties. The high school campus with a student population of over 2000, has 3 full time library assistants in addition to one librarian ( who is also the library coordinator for the district).
Although this may look good on paper, in the last 8-10 years we have seen our department dwindle from a full time coordinator with two secretaries and a district with librarians and para's at each campus, to a full time librarian also juggling the coordinator duties and staffing not a priority. For about ten years we had an awesome district Literary Conference where authors and storytellers visited each campus in addition to "An Evening with the Authors" event night. This program ended about 4 years ago. Due to budget problems at our district, things right now are not looking good. There are currently no plans to replace the vacancies.