Re: How do you do manual ckeck outs?

["Gail K. Dickinson" <ny001001@MAIL.NYSER.NET>]

Kids won't walk off with the entire library, but it will be very
difficult to keep track of exactly how many they do have without an
automated system.   My advice and emotional response is that reading is
SO important, we have to try anything we can to keep them reading.   If
we start them off with limits, we are shooting ourselves in the foot (as
well as other anatomical parts).  If I were your supervisor (I may have
a job opening, interested??) I would say "find a way to answer the
question 'how many books can we check out' without using a number, and
do overdues  in November  (what better way to spend Thanksgiving)
February, April, and 10 times in May/June.   In other words, concentrate
on what makes us look good (program); and less on what makes us look
stereotypical (limits and overdues).

*****************************
Gail Dickinson
Supervisor, Library Media Programs
Union-Endicott Central School District
Endicott, NY 13760           "a wild patience has taken me this far"
                                       --Integrity (Adrienne Rich)

>DATE:   Tue, 7 Jun 1994 11:09:00 CDT
>FROM:   Megan McGuire <MCGUIRE@MACC.WISC.EDU>
>
>This might seem like a dumb question, but I just graduated and I haven't even
>used a manual system since eight grade.  Now I've got a job where there is no
>automation and I'm not even sure I can do the things I want to.  I understand
>the that most people have kids put down their names and room numbers, stamp
>the cards, and file them by date due.  I plan to use flexible scheduling and
>therefore expect kids to be exchanging books everyday - the problem is I don't
>want them to walk off with the whole library.  The woman I student taught with
>only lets kids have two books out at a time, with exceptions made if the child
>has a paper or project, but she has an electronic checkout system which tells
>her how many books a child has out.  How can you tell how many books a child ha
 s
>out using a manual system?  A non-librarian friend suggested I make up ID cards
>for each kid and paper clip their book cards to their ID card, but that messes
>up overdues.  I'd have to go through every card to figure out who had overdues.
>This is my first really important question I've posed to LM_NET.  The response
>I've gotten to questions in the past makes me very hopeful that someone out
>there has a solution.
>
>Thanks in advance!
>Megan (mcguire@macc.wisc.edu)