Since the 2024-2025 school year, Library Media Services has partnered with the Data, Research & Accountability (DRA) department to study circulation data across WCPSS elementary schools. Our intent is to identify best practices and make data-driven recommendations to support access to library materials. You can find the results and analysis of the data studied below, as well as practical tips for how to use the data to make decisions for your library program.
Elementary school librarians interested in discussing these data and how to use them to grow the library program are encouraged to register for and participate in a monthly Elementary Circulation PLC that meets virtually on the last Tuesday of each month at 8am or 4pm. As always, reach out to Susan Bock with any questions.
This research brief presents data that highlight how elementary school library practices vary across schools in the district. Data comes from a survey of school librarians administered December 2024. The report includes information on:
Checkout limits
Checkouts when books are overdue
Library schedules
Discrepancies between practices at Title I and Restart schools as compared to schools without those designations.
Compare your checkout limits, procedures for when books are overdue, and schedule to those of other libraries across the district. Are your library practices more or less restrictive than the norm? Is there a need to revisit any practices to make potential changes that might increase access to books?
If you are at a Title I or Restart school, consider how your practices fit in to the data presented on p. 7-9. Are there opportunities to revise policies to be less restrictive?
DRA built this data dashboard that is updated quarterly with circulation data. It's a very large data set, so it may take a few minutes to load. The dashboard allows you to view both district-wide and school-specific circulation data at-a-glance.
Use the Overall School Circulation page to compare monthly data from 2025 to 2024.
Compare grade levels within your school to look for opportunities to improve access.
Look at circulation trends for your school over time, as compared to the district.
Compare circulation trends for subgroups of students to identify any groups that may be missing out on access.
Look for schools in your area that seem to be meeting your circulation goals and reach out to that librarian to learn more about what they're doing. (Note: graphs compare the total number of circulations at a school during a given month, not the number of circulations per student. These data do not take into account enrollment.)
Take screen-shots of specific graphs or data visualizations to share with your MTAC or admin for discussion. This method is recommended over sharing the dashboard as a whole given the amount of data to sift through and the time it takes the site to load.
Find your school-specific report for this time period in this OneDrive folder. Open the Excel report to view the circulation data collected for the your school. Review how to interpret the data on each tab in this slide show: Interpreting your school circulation report
Use the raw data in Tab 1 to monitor the "Percent Ever Circulation" data for each grade level or subgroup. Identify groups who are not checking out at the rates you want and determine appropriate actions to take.
Use the graphs in the "Overall" tab to see how your circulation compares to the rates in your area and the district.
Look for discrepancies in circulation rates among different groups at each grade level using the subsequent tabs.
Share specific graphs or data points with your MTAC or admin for discussion.
Coming spring 2026.