Staffing and funding are two big hurdles facing school libraries in Minnesota, according to a recent study of K-12 school libraries across the state. Close to half of the respondents in a 2024 census of school library media centers said they needed more staff members or hours.

In southwest Minnesota, about 61% of schools surveyed had only one person — most often a paraprofessional — staffing their school library, the study said. The study also said the average school library media center in southwest Minnesota had a budget of less than $4,000.

The findings were part of a survey of staff at 1,528 Minnesota school libraries, which was released last month. In the 2023 Minnesota legislative session, the state’s Multicounty Multitype Library Systems (MCMT) received one-time state funding to conduct a census of licensed media specialists working in Minnesota public and charter schools.

MCMT Library Systems work to help libraries — including school libraries — cooperate with each other in seven different regions around Minnesota. The Prairielands Library Exchange is the MCMT system that serves 18 counties in southwest Minnesota. The service region includes area counties like Lincoln, Lyon, Murray, Pipestone, Redwood and Yellow Medicine counties.

Statewide, the majority of schools in the census reported that they have a library media center, the study said. A library media center offers not only books, but technology resources. The average school library media center in Minnesota serves 432 students, and has a paid staff of one or two people.

About 54% of schools in the census reported that they had a licensed media specialist managing their library. However, the study noted that many licensed media specialists split their time among multiple schools. Only 24% of schools reported that they had a licensed media specialist working full time in their library media center.

If a library media center isn’t managed by a licensed media specialist, it is most likely managed by a licensed teacher, or a paraprofessional, the study said.

In about 44% of schools in the census, the library media center is open for 31 hours or more each week. But 28% of schools reported that their library is only open for 10 hours or less a week.

Leaving out funding sources like grants and donations, and costs like salaries and printing, the median school library media center budget in Minnesota was $5,000, the study said. About 48% of schools in the census had a library media center budget of less than $5,000.

In southwest Minnesota, the average school library budget was $3,850, the study said. The average school library media center in the Prairielands Library Exchange region had one paid staff member, and served 293 students. The average library collection included 9,415 books, which would work out to about 28 books per student, the survey said.

Around 32% of schools in the region that have a library media center share it with another school, the study said.

In the Traverse des Sioux Library Cooperative — which serves Blue Earth, Brown, Faribault, Le Sueur, Martin, Nicollet, Sibley, Waseca and Watonwan counties — school libraries tended to be larger and have bigger staffs and budgets. Census results said the average school library media center in the Traverse des Sioux region had two paid staff members, and served 349 students. The average budget for a school library in that region was $6,445.

The study said that statewide, 86% of school library staff reported that the majority of their budget is spent on books and library materials. However, funding book purchases was still a challenge. The median age of the books in school library media centers was 17 years.

Starting in the 2024 fiscal year, public school districts and charter schools received an automatic distribution of school library aid from the state, the study said. However, 40% of census respondents said they weren’t aware of the school library aid. About half of respondents who did know about the library aid, didn’t know how those funds were affecting the school library, the study said.