Budget expenditures of high school library media centers in southern New Jersey

This study examined the expenditures of southern New Jersey high school library media centers for the 2001-2002 school year. The applied research design employed mailed questionnaires to collect data from the sample of library media specialists from all public high schools in Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, Ocean, and Salem counties in New Jersey. Descriptive survey research and statistics were used to describe the characteristics of expenditures in print, non-print and electronic resources for 56 responses. Relationships between expenditures and socioeconomic rank were discussed, as were sources of funding. As a region, public high school library media centers were found to be spending less on materials than the national average. High school LMCs in the region devoted a larger percentage of their total materials expenditures to print materials and electronic resources than their counterparts nationally. There was a relationship suggested between the DFG and the level of expenditure per pupil