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We've discussed rationales for inventory before, so I'm sure a search of the archives would net more ideas, but off the top of my head, I can think of a couple reasons to inventory school library collections.... This is my first year at these two schools and I'm finding a lot of books which are in the catalog, but aren't on the shelf. In the hundreds. I'd like to remove those records, so students will stop trying to look for them. I think it's prudent to do an inventory at the end of the year to find out which books are truly missing. This was always a frustration for both patrons and staff when I worked in the public library and I'm sure that those libraries would benefit from the occasional (not necessarily annual) inventory. An annual inventory, over a few years, would be one piece of evidence to convince the administration that we need to tighten security. We are the stewards of the resources in times of tight budgets and if we're hemorrhaging items, we and our admin need to know that. In each of my buildings, every staff member has a key to the library. I have a feeling that items are disappearing because staff members have access to the collection and help themselves when we're not open and available to check the books out to them. I've had this happen before (a retiring staff member returned a large number of items that he had in his classroom but had never bothered to check out -- about $1000 worth or 40% of my annual budget). I'm fairly certain it's happening here -- I have a teacher who asked for a list of Opposing Viewpoints books and now none of them are on the shelf but none of them are checked out. In addition, one of my buildings has no security system and we're constantly having books returned which were not checked out in the first place. Heaven knows how many we've lost. If I could convince the administration to purchase a security system and restrict staff access to hours that we are available to help them, I'd want to do an inventory for a couple of years after to document the decrease in missing items. After that, I'd be less likely to do an inventory every year, but I still think every few years would provide useful information. Schools districts in Washington state tend to be self-insured, so they need to have an accurate accounting to know what would need to be replaced in the event of a disaster. I've worked in districts that required us to inventory supplies as well as library materials for that reason. I'm not sure knowing how many boxes of $1.50 paperclips we have is important, but I do think that knowing how many of the more expensive books, videos, etc., are missing can be useful..... That's my two cents, :) Julie Julie Olson, Librarian Ford and Keithley Middle Schools Tacoma, WA Julie_Olson@fp.k12.wa.us -------------------------------------------------------------------- All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law. To change your LM_NET status, e-mail to: listserv@listserv.syr.edu In the message write EITHER: 1) SIGNOFF LM_NET 2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL 3) SET LM_NET MAIL 4) SET LM_NET DIGEST * Allow for confirmation. LM_NET Help & Information: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/ Archive: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/archive/ EL-Announce with LM_NET Select: http://elann.biglist.com/el-announce/ LM_NET Supporters: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/ven.html --------------------------------------------------------------------