HIT: Circulation Software: Part Two

[Marti Anderson <marti@inwave.com>]

Here are more responses to my question about circulation software.

        from Beth Pounds:

I really think that trying to gather parent wishes on book restrictions
goes contrary to everything we have been taught as librarians and ties
up
our time doing things which are not our job, BUT if you still want to do
this, there may be a way.  I use Unison and I can put an "important
note"
in any student's folder.  When this person's folder is opened to do
circulation, the computer beeps and the important note comes to the
forefront.  Using the escape key clears it from the screen but retains
it
to be shown again the next time you go into the folder.  You can also
delete the message with a "F" key (can't remember the number).

Hope this helps.

        from Jeanette B. Heath:

Mandarin does not have this feature.

        from Rebecca Endlich:

Alexandria Companion circulation system has such a capability that I
know
of. There may be others.

        from Joan Peterson:

Your ideals are laudable, but probably impossible.  I don't know of
any software out there at present which does what you want and I am
not sure that there should be.  Allow the parents to exercise their
responsibility toward their children and supervise what their
children read.  In reality, I doubt if very may parents will complain
about materials in an elementary library.  In theory, you could make
a data base of all the students and all the parents desires
(presuming they communicate them to you), but it is just not
practical.  Parents should be parents and librarians should be
librarians and not try to take over the parents' functions.  If you
provide good materials in your library, you should make them
available to all students and let the parents decide about their own
children.

In short--don't sweat it!  There are many more problems you will have
to spend you time and energy on without taking on an impossible task
(pleasing everyone).

Good luck with you career.

        from Alice Yucht:

philosophical issues aside, please consider one very real, and practical
aspect of your desire for a "filtering" circulation software program
that
would provide access to parental preference indicators.
It's not about intellectual freedom, it's about professional priorities.

Not every library is fully automated, fully staffed, or even fully
funded.
Many elementary school libraries are basically one-person operations,
which means that often the circ. procedures must be done by volunteers,
including the kids themselves.   Where will you find the time to input
all the parental preferences, make sure that those "filters" not being
circumvented by whoever is doing the actual checkouts, etc.?

What I'm trying to tell you is that -- with the best of intentions --
you may be creating additional work for yourself that you won't have
time to do, without shortchanging other, more basic professional
responsibilities.   If a parent doesn't want their kid to read
something,
that is the parent's responsibility to supervise and enforce.  As
librarians, we often JUST DON'T HAVE THE TIME/STAFF to do it
for them.

Good luck.

        from Kate Stirk:

Most automated systems offer you a space for comments about
students/patrons. You could enter any parental concerns in that space.
On Alexandria, the comments section pops up each time the child tries to
check out. I haven't used it on Athena but I know the notes/comments
section is there.

I think you're making a mountain out of a molehill. Very few parents
will
"demand" their child only have access to certain books. Most collections
support the curriculum so there are few challenges. The challenges come
from the assigned fiction works.

        from Phyllis Sigmond:

Once again, I will put my two cents in, I think you are missing the
boat!!!  It is your selection policy, not a circulation system which
will answer those needs.  Your emphasis is selection and reader's
guidance, not selection and parents' approval.  While I was new (5
years ago), I struggled with how to create a Young Adult collection.
How would I keep youngers students from checking these books out?  I
talked with Dianne Hopkins about intellectual freedom concerns.  She
didn't tell me what to do, but what to think about.  With the best of
intentions, was I planning to restrict the YA collection.  I was
planning to say, "Sorry, these books is open only for 7th and 8th grade
students.  When you are in 7th and 8th grade, you can read them too."
That really wasn't my intent, but I didn't see another way.  I also
did have a formal challenge on a book that had been in the LMC since
1975 about witchcraft and charms.  Because I had a school board
approved policy which I had written while a student at UW-Madison, my
"butt" was covered.  My reconsideration committee functioned very
professionally and the book was retained.  It made me rethink about
that YA situation again.  I was worried that the YA would get me a
challenge and it was an old book that I hadn't even selected or cared
about that did it!  Time to rethink.  My statement about the LMC
mission and responsibilities in the student/parent handbook does all
that you are saying with the onus on the parent, not the LMC.  We all
need to educate our students and parents and teachers and
administrators and guidance counselors about intellectual freedom, a
parent's responsibility and reader's guidance.  I have had another
challenge since then about a YA book that had been banned in our
school in 1982 which had been inadvertently reshelved during
automation and a move to a new school and found by the same family
which initially had the book successfully removed.  The
reconsideration committee, updated policy and updated mission
statement and responsibilities worked again.  I have had to talk to
parents and defend our policies while telling them that they had the
right to limit their student's choices.  They have all declined.
Acknowledging their opinions, rendering validity to their concerns is
the most important action you can do to help them understand a
student's right to read and family values.  Make them your allies.  I
still send books reviews about Christian literature to the first
mother posed my first challenge and I have had to reject 6 books she
felt she could just give to the LMC.  I have also circled books on
the reviews that I would love to have in the LMC.

I have spent a long time on this.  I usually don't, but I sort of
know where you are coming from.  How do you do the best job finding
the right book for a student?  I have called parents telling them
that I had a book I thought their student would be interested in
(Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes).  She suggested I send it home and she
would read it.  She liked it and her daughter read it.  I enjoyed the
Wheetsie Bat books by Francesca Block, but will not select them for
our LMC, so I placed one in a yellow envelope and send it home to her
mom, asked her to read it first (I did know the mom well) to see if
she approved (which she did).  They both wanted to read all the rest
of the books.  Last summer when getting an ice cream cone, she told
me she had purchased them and gave them to all her friends.

Keep the joy in book selection (which you already have) and reader's
guidance (which you are working on) and work in your new school to
build the book budget.  What you need is a great collection with lots
of choices for lots of reading needs.

By the way, I will still let a young student check out any book as
long as I have practiced reading guidance (the student must have one
book he/she can read)  or tell the student to have his/her mom call or
come with him/her to get "Goosebumps".  I encourage our parents to
check out books on their own cards which we make.

        from R. Jean Gustafson:

You've probably already been informed that Folletts system does
just that.  you can put in a patron important message and it comes up
when
you put in the students name.  You have to read the message and then
remove it before you can check anything out to them.  This way it
reminds
you before checking things out the child of any important parental
requests.

        from Cathy Moore:

I'm taking the Uof South Carolina MLIS degree program via distance ed
through the U of Maine Augusta.  This week our YA lit professor, Dr. Pat
Feehan, invited Karen Jo Gounaud of Family Friendly Libraries to address
our class.  This was wonderful to hear the agenda of the FFL and Mrs.
Gounaud's own opinions about censorship (which she doesn't want to do -
just move the books like _Daddy's Roommate_ to the adult section).  She
talked about a program called LibrarySafe which sounded as if parents
could
make requests as to the type of books allowed or not allowed to their
own
children.  I think the web URL is www.librarysafe.com

Good luck.  I graduate in May (it's been a long three years, with three
years before that completing my bachelor's- and I'm getting closer to
middle age !)


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Thanks once again to all of you who took the time (and the thought) to
reply! It is much appreciated!

:-)     Marti Anderson
mailto:marti@inwave.com
substitute teacher: Janesville, WI School District
student: University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee