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The Sunbelt's Public LibrariesRaymond L. Carpenter PhD aa Professor, School of Library Science, Institute for Research in SocialScience, University of North Carolina at Chapel HillPublished online: 17 Sep 2012.

To cite this article: Raymond L. Carpenter PhD (1983) The Sunbelt's Public Libraries, Public LibraryQuarterly, 4:4, 27-36, DOI: 10.1300/J118v04n04_04

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1300/J118v04n04_04

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The Sunbelt's Public Libraries: 1972-1982

Ray L. Carpenter

ABSTRACT. During the 1970s, the population of the Sunbelt states grew more than that of the nation as a whole. However, the question is whether this region's growth in public library expenditures and circulation kept pace with the rate of inflation for the period. Based on analysis of survey data compiled by the Memphis, Tennessee, Public Library, marked improvements in budgets and circulation are noted, while losses in the purchasing power of salaries were exper- ienced and imbalances in gender distribution among directors con- tinued.

In the early 1970s, the nation's most populous region was looking forward to continued growing prosperity while still struggling, as was the rest of the country, with establishing public services to cope with its increasing population and changing economic and social structures. Public librarians were beginning to see greater fulfill- ment of their needs through improved financing, sorely needed to provide services for an increasingly better-educated citizenry of natives as well as newcomers attracted by lower energy and labor costs, employment opportunities, and the quality of life, part myth, part fact, of the South. A report on the conditions of the South's larger public libraries, then defined as those having annual operat- ing budgets of $100,000 or more, made it clear that to achieve parity with other public institutions and occupations, those libraries would require considerable additional support. 1

The following analysis of the aggregate changes from 1972 to

Ray L. Carpenter, PhD, is Professor, School of Library Science, and Research Pro- fessor, Institute for Research in Social Science, at the Universityof North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Special thanks to Mrs. Joy Hensley of the Memphis Public Library for her work on the annual survey of Southern public librnries and her advice in the preparation of this study.

Public Library Quarterly, Vol. 4(4), Winter 1983 O 1984 by The Haworth Press, h c . All rights reserved. 27

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28 PUBLfC LIBRARY QUARTERLY

1982 is based principally on the reports compiled by the Memphis (Tennessee) Public Library.2 The 1982 report represents 90 librar- ies (80 in 1972) in 15 states ranging from Virginia to Texas-a close approximation of the Sunbelt with notable exclusions-California and New Mexico in the West, Maryland and Delaware in the East. Some large systems such as those in Miami and New Orleans are not included.

The population of this region, commonly designated as the South by federal and other agencies, grew 20 percent from 1970 to 1980, as compared with a national increase of 11.5 percent. As one of the four U.S. demographic regions, the Sunbelt now includes a third of the nation's people. The 90 libraries reporting to the 1982 Memphis survey serve about 26 million people, a bit more than a third of the total in the South. Sixty percent of these libraries serve populations of 60,000 to 249,000; 28 percent, 250-499,000; 12 percent, 500,000 or more; the average population served is 279,000.

Public libraries continue to rely mainly on local governments for support, and it might be reasoned that the changes during 1970-80 show evidence of a larger, better-educated, and more prosperous population with a relatively high rate of employment might produce tax revenues to increase library budgets. While the data analyzed here are not comprehensive, they provide basic and substantial in- dicators of change within the region.

The ranges and the differences between the mean and median budgets reflect the variation in populations served in this region: from as few as 60,000 to over one and a half million people. The difference between the mean and median per capita budget is relatively small, although the range in budgets is quite large. Fifty percent of the libraries in the middle of the range-the quarters lying above and below the median-spend from $5.50 to $9.30 per capita.

The change in mean per capita expenditure from 1972 ($2.97) is 166 percent. This rate of increase exceeds the 126 percent change in

Budqets: 1982

Total - Salaries Materills Per Capi ta

k a n 12.322.000 11.412.000 1342,000 17.89

md l an 1.580.OlO 863.000 224.000 17.44

Range 385,000-17.669,ooo 257,Wo-9,395,000 24.800-2.909.000 11.99-20.82

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Ray L. Carpenter 29

the Consumer Price Index for that period. The implications of this increase are spelled out in the following discussion where the "en- richment" of the period is shown to be distributed disproportionate- ly.

The proportions of the budget for salaries, 63 percent in 1982 as contrasted with 61 percent in 1972, probably indicate simply the need to raise salaries, not to increase the number of staff. The 15 percent for materials is less than the 18 percent in 1972. This pro- portionate decrease for materials occurred during a decade of con- siderable inflation in book costs. The "average book price" in 1971 was $13.25; in 1981, $25.48.

The increase of 92 percent includes many kinds of materials (e.g., medicine, law, science), less heavily purchased by public li- braries than others. Consider, however, the price change in books for juveniles (up 96 percent) and fiction (up 124 pe r~en t ) .~ It should also be noted that nearly a quarter of 1982 budgets were allocated to purposes other than materials or salaries-equipment, energy, in- surance, etc.-while in 1972 such purposes claimed only 19 percent of the total.

Circulation and the Budget

The data allow us to answer two useful questions: one, has cir- culation increased? Two, for lack of a better term, has the "cost per unit circulation" increased? This variable-cost per unit circula- tion-is acquired by simply dividing the annual budget by the annual circulation. It does not measure the circulation cost itself, of course. Roughly, it does measure how much circulation a library delivers per budget dollar.

The 16 percent increase in the average per capita circulation is difficult to evaluate. Budgets increased, but hardly more than the Consumer Price Index (CPI), and they were required to provide ser- vice for larger populations. Moreover, the increase in cost per unit circulation (130 percent) was only about as high as the CPI increase (126 percent) and less than the increase in overall per capita library expenditure (166 percent). Generally, then, library circulation has increased, but the cost as measured here has not increased substan- tially more than might be expected due to the CPI and the fact that li- braries are labor intensive. The interesting relationships between per capita budget expenditure, per capita circulation, and cost per unit of circulation are presented in Table 3.

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TABLE 2

ClRWLATLMl AN0 BUDGET 1982 and Changer 1972-1982

Per Capita Cl rcu la t lon Cost Per Un i t C i rcu la t ion

Wan 4.25 51.93

Range 1.46-12.4 .El-1.58

Median 3.8 1.78

Ql - 9'3 3.09-4.91 1 .*9-2.19

Z Change i n kans : 1972-1982 16% 1301

*Q1 - 93 i s the range o f the 25% of l f b r a r i e r b e l w and 25% above the md ian - the middle 501.

TABLE 3

CORRELATION Irl OF UNIT COSTS (BUDGET AND ClRCULATlONl 1982.

Per Capi ta Cost Per Per Capita Budget C i r ~ v l a t i ~ Un i t C i rcu la t ion

Per Capita Budget --- .74 .36

Per Capita Ci rcu la t ion -.29

% x i m cor re la t ion valves are ~ 1 . 0 . A l l are s t a t i s t i c a l l y s i gn i f i can t a t ,003 or less.

The correlations in Table 3 indicate that:

1. The higher the per capita budget, the higher the per capita cir- culation: budget is related to circulation, and the relationship, .74, is quite strong. (In 1972 the r value was .56).

2. The relationship between budget and cost per unit circulation is fairly low. As per capita budgets increase, the "cost per unit circulation" increases modestly (.36).

3. Per capita circulation and the "cost per unit circulation" are inversely related, albeit moderately at - .29.

The most important of these three correlations may be that it "pays" to increase circulation-the cost per unit decreases on aver- age as circulation increases.

Indeed, we find this to be the case if we use the partial correlation procedure which extends the analysis and allows for a collective de- scription of all three variables. That is, if per capita budget is ad-

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Ray L. Carpenter 31

justed for or "controlled," the correlation (r) between per capita circulation and cost per unit circulation is - .89. This high negative value indicates the effectiveness of a "scale of economy": holding per capita budget constant, as per capita circulation increases the cost per unit circulation decreases to a high degree.

Sluff Salaries

There are many reasons to be interested in public library staff- ing-improved quality and quantity of service, higher productivity and cost-effectiveness being prominent among them. In this study, as in many others, we have little evidence of output or productivity, but we do have evidence about the distribution of salaries among po- sitions in the library and about directors' gender-related salary dif- ferences. In the following discussion, recall that on average, 63 per- cent of a library's budget is allocated for salaries-more than four times the amount for materials.

Table 4 summarizes the salaries paid for six classes of positions, ranging in the administrative hierarchy from director to beginning clerk. Average (mean) salaries vary from the median about 1-2 per- cent for each position.

There are many possible comparisons to make among positions, but the most informative for our purposes are based on the figures in the last two rows: the percent change in median salaries from 1972-1982, and the gain or loss this change represents in terms of the change in the CPI for that period. The director's 1982 median salary was 127 percent larger than in 1972-yet it constitutes only a 1 percent gain over the cost-of-living increase. Analyzed in these terms, all other position salaries "lost ground"-i.e., their salary increase did not match or exceed the cost of living. Beginning sala- ries for professionals endured the worst loss; the 1982 median for that staff position was worth 39 percent less than in 1972. Beginning subprofessionals "lost" 23 percent; clerks, 15 percent and middle administrators, 16 percent. (The beginning salaries reported by Heim4 and LearmontS are substantially similar.)

The Bureau of Labor Statistics issues figures for four-person family living costs that are useful in assessing library ~a lar ies .~ For autumn, 1981, the Bureau reported that $25,407 was required on average for the U.S. family at the intermediate level of living. The average income for three cities in the South was $23,000, nearly identical to the median earnings of department heads. The higher

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Ray L. Carpenter 33

standard of living $34,600 for cities in the South, was about the same as the average salary for this group of Southern library direc- tors. For the U.S., the higher standard calls for $38,060, consider- ably more than the Southern average. The lower standard-$15,300 for the U.S. and $14,000 for the South-is close to the median be- ginning professional salary; half of the beginning professionals fall below this "lower" standard, and none are near the "intermediate" level. All clerical and most subprofessional salaries are far below the lower level.

By both criteria, the CPI and the family cost-of-living, librarians are paid poorly. The possible exception is found in a small band of about 40 directors and 15 assistant directors whose salaries were at the higher standard of living.

In addition to this external perspective of librarians' salaries, we can examine them in a relationship to each other. The correlations between the salaries of the six staff positions vary considerably as shown in Table 5.

The strongest relationships are between directors, assistant direc- tors, and department heads. While salaries for all positions are positively related-the higher the salary for one position the higher than for any other-the strongest correlations are at the top levels for administrators. Salaries for professionals and subprofessionals are also quite strongly related (r=.67). The director's salary is only moderately correlated with professional salary. It can be reasonably expected that assistant librarians and department heads will be paid more nearly in line with their directors and that professional and subprofessional salaries are closely linked. However, beginning professionals are more likely to find their salary size linked to that

TABLE 5

CORRELATIONS BENEEN SMBIES*

k t . Lib. Dept. Head kDf. Ylb-Pmf. Clerl: Oirectnr . .88 .69 .49 .42 .UI

Asst. Lib. .76 .50 .45 .33

Dept. Head .64 .SO .M

Prof. .67 .60

Waaimm correlation valuer are 3.0. A l l are s t a t i r t i c a l l r significant a t ,003 or less.

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34 PUBLJC LIBRARY QUARTERLY

of the department head or subprofessional than to that of the director or assistant director.

Per Capita Budget and Staff Salaries

Given the quite strong correlation between per capita budget and per capita circulation (r= .74, Table 31, and that staff performance through collection development, dissemination, and other functions is in part measured by our one output measure, circulation, we may ask about the relationship between budget and staff salaries. Table 6, quite indirectly to be sure, provides some evidence of reward for performance.

To summarize, the higher the per capita budget, the higher the salaries for all positions. Moreover, this relationship is quite strong at the top levels of administration and moderate in the lower eche- lons. That is, administrators are more likely to find higher salaries

' where budgets are high than are staff in other positions. These rela- tionships were quite similar in 1972, although the correlation be- tween per capita expenditure and beginning professional salary then was higher, .48.

Gender and Director's Salary

During the past decade there has been much written and spoken discussion about salary differences between men and women in li- brarianship as well as in other occupations and professions. The is- sues in librarianship are far more complex than can be indicated by directors' salaries alone, as has been frequently reported by Heim,4 and Carpenter and Shearer.' Presently, we will report only the re- sults of the 88 (2 were not identified) male and female directors' salaries for 1982 in the South.

Heim reported similar proportions of males and females for 1 I8 Southern libraries in 1981. However, the difference reported in me- dian salaries for men and women directors was 32 percent as com- pared with the 17 percent in Table 7, Presumably the variation in re- sults may be due to (1) a combination of several factors, principally a larger proportion of smaller libraries, surveyed by Heim and Kacena, whose directors are more likely to be female and budgets lower than those reporting to the Memphis survey; (2) the changes in the year 1981-82 introduced higher salaries for all directors (Heim reported a $29,585 median salary for both sexes as compared

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TABLE 6

CORRELATIONS BETWEEN BUDGET IWD STAFF SALARIES'

Director Asst. L i b Oept. Head Prof. Per Capi ta - - Budget Exp. .61 .61 .57 .40 .28 .38

%ximm c o r r e l a t i o n valuer a re 3 . 0 . A11 a r e r t a t i r t i c a l l y s i g n i f i c a n t a t .005 or less.

TABLE 7

DIRECTORS' S&U(IES bN0 GENDER

R a n - A1 1 D i rec tors $34.850

Females 1391) 33.870

% Difference 4 .51

R d i a n - 634.4M)

with our $34,400); (3) errors in reporting and variations in cases- states included in the category "South" differ between the two reports.

Summary and Conclusion

Based on the data available from the Memphis Public Library an- nual surveys, it is clear that the Sunbelt states as a group have made some real gains beyond those expected due to inflation (the CPI). While the population of this area grew more than most regions, its per capita expenditures exceeded the CPI by 40 percent. On a per capita basis circulation grew 16 percent, and the cost per unit circu- lation, 130 percent. Larger budgets and population apparently led to effectiveness in that cost per unit circulation decreases strongly as circulation increases.

Such changes notwithstanding, one might say also that the more things change the more they remain the same. About two-thirds of budgets are still allocated for staff, and while salaries doubled in size for about every position except beginning professionals, all positions failed to keep pace with the change in CPI. Beginning pro- fessionals fared worst of all with a 40 percent loss of purchasing power, a phenomenon that presents a serious problem. While sala-

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ries for directors generally kept pace with the CPI, males still out- number females about 1.5: 1 and are paid several thousand dollars a year more.

Continued population growth, urbanization, and industrialization should witness further improvements in library science and it is hoped will be accompanied by further reduction in racial discrimi- nation and a movement towards reduction of inequities due to gender. Such changes require a stong economy and appropriate tax support, major issues for the nation as well as this region.

REFERENCE NOTES

I. Shearer, K. D. and Carpenter, R. L. "Municipal Public Libraries in thc South: A Slant Towards Salaries." Southeastern Librarian. (Winter 1972): 163-172.

2. Memphis (Tennessee) Public Library. 1982 Statistics of Southern Public Libraries. Memphis: Memphis Public Library, 1982.

3. Atkinson. Hugh C. "Prices of U.S. and Foreign Published Materials." Bowker An- nual of Library and Book Trade Information 1973. New York: R. R. Bowker Co., 1973. p. 332. Crannis, C. B. "Title Output and Average Prices." Publisher's Weekly, (March 15, 1982): 44.

4. Heim, K. M. and Kaccna, C. "Sex, Salaries and Library Support . . . 1981." Li- brary Journal. (September 15, 1981): 1693-1699.

5. Learrnont, C. L. and Van Houton, S. "Placements and Salaries 1980." LibraryJour- nal, (October 1, 1981): 1881-1887.

6. Bureau of Labor Statistics press relcase as reported in the Durham Morning Hearld (N.C.). (April 17. 1982): 1-2.

7. Carpcnler, R. L. and Shearer. K. D. "Sex and Salary Survey." Libra? Journal. (November I S , 1972): 3682-3685.

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