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From: Brenda Moxley <dems157@uabdpo.dpo.uab.edu I've been automated about 12 years. I tried roladex cards, barcodes in notebooks, barcodes on cutouts on yarn around the neck for K...etc. What I do is get paint sticks, paint them in varied colors. I use a different color for each Kindergarten class--glossy paint works best and it's best applied with a brush. Spray paint takes a lot of coats of paint and is costly. It does take time-several coats because I like them very smooth. Of course, since I expect children to use them SIX years the time isn't so much. After they are dry, I put the barcodes on with some mylar shipping tape. I apply the Student Name separately because our students domove frequently. Last I apply the teacher name. It's not so important the first year when all the sticks are the same color for the class, but is afterward when the students go to different teachers in first grade and on. All I change every year is the teacher name on the computer and on the sticks--I wish I could find a faster way to do that! The markers are stored in cans-I think they are Planters Cheese Sticks, Cheese Balls, Pretzels. I also spray those and I put the teacher's names on them. I think I'll decorate them with the teacher's picture made with my QuickCam so littles can find their teacher quickly. I also want to make pictures of the Kindergartners with the QuickCam to apply to markers since they can't read their names yet. The cans are on a small table under a bulletin board at the front of the library. That way they are accessible whenever children come in to checkout, with or without their class. Anyone who hits with his shelf marker (himself, tables, bookcases, others-makes noise) puts his marker away, sits down and does not check out at that time. He can come back during school-wide check out from 2-2:45 if their teacher will allow it. The point is to stop the misbehavior, not to withold books. Shelf markers are used to hold the place for a book while browsing- so it can be properly reshelved. This function becomes more important as students grow and begin to use Non-Fiction shelves where they con't reshelve. I have NO adult help in the library and almost none of our students are able to shelve non-fiction (even if they are allowed to come for shelving). When students line up to check out, they hand me the book with the marker in it-and I have their barcode. Also, if I don't have time to check out a book students can leave it on my desk with their marker in it and I know who wants it. Then I can check it out and send it to the student. I do have difficulty with multiple book needs. The best I've been able to come up with is putting the marker inside the front cover of the first book and putting a rubber band around the entire stack. I insist that whoever delivers the books return the rubber bands. Our markers are NOT decorated-they are utilitarian. Students ask to keep them when they graduate, but I explain that they will be recycled. Paint sticks in large quantities can't be had every year and I don't want to paint that many new ones every year. I usually do about 100-enough for the new Kindergarteners. I'm about to the point I won't have to add any-after this year I think I will be rid of the plastic ones. Wood recycles longer. Don't use the shelf markers from UPSTART! Not if you plan to have a marker for every child--they are too costly. Also, they don't last that well. They become brittle and break before children are done with them. From: MARTINV@TEN-NASH.TEN.K12.TN.USI'm using Follett's Unison Circ on PC, and buy my barcodes from them. I also buy an inexpensive card which has space for the patron name, class, etc. and put the barcode in the center. I then laminate the cards with the intention of using them each year the student stays in my school. I sort the cards by class since I'm still cursed with fixed scheduling, and keep them together with a rubber band. These stay with me in the library and are distributed by a student at the beginning of each library class and collected during checkout or near the end of the period. A few are lost, many are mutilated but still readable. We don't get cute with decoration in middle school, though elementary would find that appealing. Students are charged $1.00 if they lose their barcode or mutilate it to the point that it can't be scanned. The first barcode is free. Lucky you to have access to the attendance sec.'s list. That will save you lots of time. Wish I had it! From: Diane Durbin <dianed@tenet.edu> Here is one of the neatest ideas I've heard for barcodes - and I read it on this list a couple of years ago. In this particular school the barcodes were put on buttons - the kind you make on those neat button machines. Each child's barcode button was given to his/her teacher. In the classroom the buttons were stuck into a bulletin board when they weren't in use. When the class went to the library, the children took the buttons from the bulletin board and pinned it on. If just one or two children were going to the library, they did the same thing and the button also served as a hall pass. I presume that the child's name was also on the button. I would also think that the buttons could be passed on to the next year's teacher. From: Kathy Bennett <bennett@ncsa.uiuc.edu> -Our school library uses Winnebago (IBM version) to circulate materials. The students, 624 in grades 3-5, do not have their own cards. In general, the students come to the library during a weekly scheduled library class so we have decided to have the barcodes by homerooms. Each homeroom has a sheet of tagboard and all student barcodes from the same room are on the same sheet in alphabetical order. When the class comes in we pull out the appropriate card and checkout goes very smoothly. New students appear at the end of the card. If students come at another time, either alone or in a group, it is easy to find the correct card for their homeroom and check out their materials. We do the same with staff. We print the barcodes are paper instead of labels. From: "Karen S. Whetzel" <kwhetzel@pen.k12.va.us> I am in a K-4 school, and have tried different approaches. First year, I put the barcodes on a page by room # and students told us thier name, teacher's name. Second year, I bought the cards from Winnebago that I put the barcodes on. We had students put them in the back of their library books (we kept the pockets there). Problem: cards too small. Now, I buy colored index cards (which fit perfectly in back of book in pocket), put barcode label on there. Different color each year.m New ones each year, they aren't that sturdy. If child doesn't check out book, we file (using old card file from manual checkout). For teachers, we put barcodes on a page in notebook. From: "Kathryn K. Lafferty" <klaffert@pen.k12.va.us> I've been putting them into a looseleaf notebook, organized by class in ABC order by the teachers' names. Last year I xeroxed the yearbook from the previous year, and put the pictures in the notebook, too. Helped a lot, made the kids think I remembered everyone's name! Unfortunately we didn't do a yearbook this year, so I won't have pictures. What I'd like to do is to keep the notebook, but also have library cards with their barcodes. Then I can pass them out each library period, and it will help me learn names. - From: Peggy Brengle <pbrengle@metnet.epflbalto.org> As an elementary media specialist, I use the green and white bar computer paper and set up each classroom on a different sheet. I have a fixed schedule so I see every student every week by class. This way no one loses or forgets their "Library Card". This number stays with them for their five years. It is a bit of a task to write their names in and resort their barcodes to the new class each year, but once it is finished it works for the whole year. From: Melissa Davis <mbdavis@tenet.edu> The company our school uses for "school pictures" provides us with an "ID" card that's really a rolodex card with the kid's picture already on it. We simply put the smart barcode label (has the kid's name on it) in the space beside the picture. They make these to our specs so we know the labels will fit. We keep the cards on a rolodex beside the circ computer. We do put them inside clear plastic holders that have the rolodex holes in them. That protects the label from being rubbed out. The only cost to us was for the rolodex circle thingie and the clear holders (both from Quill if I remember right). From: McGinn - Barbara <bmcginn@umd5.umd.edu> I purchased library cards from Gaylord, imprinted with the name of our school, address etc. and put the childs name on a sticker on back of card.This was three years ago and the cards have lasted - kids get to keep their cards upon "graduation" (fifthe grade) I rubber-band the cards and keep them at the check-out desk, labelled by teacher name so the kids can check out books on their own or I can pass them out when their class comes. I know other media centers in my area use notebooks with barcodes stuck on for each class and other methods but I find the initial expense of the plastic cards to be well worth the expense. (kids keep their cards as they move from grade to grade and surprisingly few are lost each year. You can also reuse the cards - if a child moves, I put a signature sticker over the old name and add the new one. By the way I put the patron barcode on the front with the school name and signature strip on the back. From: Chris House <wexlr1@minerva.cis.yale.edu> How about putting the barcodes on a round rolodex with one of the small stick-on school photos on the same card so that you are sure to have the right child. From: Jamie Boston <jamieb@wheel.dcn.davis.ca.us> I run two barcodes per patron. One goes on the rolodex file (for those times when students come in without their class - which is frequent). The other goes on a 9x12 manila folder with one of the teacher's barcodes on the tab. The folders are kept in a binder on the checkout desk. The Kindergarten students are the only ones that do not get a class folder. Instead I have the teachers make bookmarks. (I precut the paper to a size that will fit nicely into the bookpocket - just a bit longer than the former checkout cards). The teacher prints the student's name and class # and the students decorate it. It is then returned to me and I put the barcode on the reverse and then laminate them. That way the students can hand me their "ticket" and I can learn their names quickly. Asking them their names (when we sometimes have students from as many as 28 different countries), especially their last names which is how we alphabetize them, is sometimes a lost cause at this age. From: Deborah Chaney <chaney@tenet.edu> Barcode cards are made by our data processing department. None of our 17 elementary schools have the children keep their own cards. Some use the following: a large tagboard sheet laminated with book pockets attached. Cards are kept in the pockets. When a child goes alone to the library, he takes his card, and returns it to the pocket when he returns to the room. When the whole class goes, the whole sheet goes. Some teachers allow the children to "decorate" their pocket. At the end of the year, the cards are cleaned (the laminated cards really do pick up stickiness and grime) and placed in the child's permanent folder. At the start of the next school year, the child's card is automatically with the new teacher. From: Timothy Williams Deakers <deakers@hsc.usc.edu> We have 600 students and I put barcodes on roladex plastic windows. Then I type the patron name at the top of the roladex card itself and in parenthesis put year they will graduate and then a bottom left their barcode number in case the plastic and the white card ever get separated: From: CHorn3839@aol.com We used Rolodex cards alphabetized by grade and included a picture of each student (my aide photocopied the yearbook for this). This is in the high school level. At elementary level, I have seen barcodes on rolodex cards kept by teacher and grade level (and in the order that they come into the library). These are rubber banded together and kept in a file box in order of classes into the library for the week. Parent volunteers then grab the class cards and arrange them in a file box with the alphabet cards, so that students can get their own card out. At a local kindergarten, the lms used clothespins with their number on one side and name on the other, and the parent volunteers simply typed the number into the computer rather than scanning a barcode. This seemed to work very well (the clothespins were fastened to their shirt). Good luck!! We found at the high school that it was quicker to type the student's last name in than it was to file the rolodex and scan the barcode.