Collection Analysis: Printz Award Part 2

Okay, so part 2 is all about the Branch. (Check out Part 1) This is my middle class, heavy reader community and I think the stats easily show that. Before I say anything more I want to give full disclosure, my list only includes books that are currently in the Teen Area at the Branch. I  have included copies that have recently gone into missing, lost, or withdrawn because most had circulated in the past 8 months (we switched systems end of June) and I wanted their numbers to still count.

The following titles are located in JUV, meaning they were not added into my list. I may reevaluate some of these titles and move them to teen, but for now they are not part of my data.

Skellig by David Almond
Kit’s Wildnerness by David Almond
Many Stones by Carolyn Coman
Heart to Heart by Jan Greenberg
Hole in my Life by Jacke Gantos
John Lennon: All I want is the Truth by Elizabeth Patridge
A Wreath for Emmit Till by Marilyn Nelson
Charles and Emma by Debra Heiligman

There were also a couple of titles that should be in teen, but are not owned by the Branch (although they are by our Main Library)

Dreamquake : book two of the Dreamhunter duet by Elizabeth Knox
Punkzilla by Adam Rapp
Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster boy by Gary D. Schmidt
The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things by Carolyn Mackler
The Returning by Christine Hinwood

 I also only have Code Name Verity and Dodger already ordered from this year’s list.

Okay, so what I learned. Where most books at the Main Library where sitting at an average of 3 circs, my Branch is at 5 circs or more. In fact, while the Main Library has 27 titles with 2 or less average circulations the Branch only has 7! That’s a huge difference. Again, Why We Broke Up is in first place. I don’t think I expected that one to be in top, but it makes sense since it’s one of the newer books and had a lot of buzz. It’s also interesting to see that Stolen, The Book Thief, Scorpio Races, and Looking for Alaska were in the top 10 at both locations. I think that says something with 5 books stand out as leaders at two different locations. And while Code Name Verity isn’t in the top 10 at the Branch, it’s not that far behind. I’ll be interested to see if it jumps ranks this coming year.

There are still 11 titles that haven’t circ’d in the last 8 months. A little better than the Main Library, but it still makes me sad. Interestingly enough, the only overlap in titles between the two locations are Black Juice, My Heartbeat, White Darkness, and The Ropemaker. I am surprised at how well Octavian Nothing is doing. I feel like that one is always on the shelf, but seeing that it had 5 check-outs in the past 8 months proves otherwise. However, I am curious why they’re not continuing on to the sequel as that has one had 1 check-out recently and has half the circulation that book one does. I may not be too far off on thinking this one doesn’t have high appeal with my teens, but at least they’re trying it out.

Again, there is no surprise in which titles have staying power and which do not. Those titles are almost exactly the same at both locations. However, being a John Green fan girl, I am pleased to see both Abundance of Katherines and Looking for Alaska are doing well. I don’t do storage at the Branch, but I really don’t see any titles that will be withdrawn in the coming months. There are a couple I need to get back into the spotlight, but besides the few that have already been pulled the rest are doing well enough. As with the Main Library there are a couple of titles I need to order replacements for and maybe even additional copies. All in all, I’m very pleased to see the Printz Award titles doing so well at the Branch. The numbers at both locations really have given me a new perspective on the award and appeal, especially since I booktalk about very few of these titles. This is something I do plan to change in the future; I’m going to encourage my co-workers to read some of the titles on the list and creating a display around the winner/honors.

Below is all the data I collected. The tables are sortable if you wish to look at them in different orders. If you have any question/think I might have left something out just leave a comment. I realize this may really only be fascinating to me, but I would still love to hear other’s thoughts/have a discussion. I also plan on doing the same thing for the Morris Award, which should be posted next week.