HIT:Circulation Software: Part One-A

[Marti Anderson <marti@inwave.com>]

(Note: Sorry this is being sent out in reverse order. I went over the
line limit for Part One, and am now dividing that section into two
parts. Thanks for your understanding and patience! :-) Marti)

Hi! Wow, did this group ever come through for me! You not only answered
the question I asked, but you opened up on important issues that widened
my perspective. Most of you seemed to take my status as a student into
account and were very kind and gentle, acting as the guides and
shepherds I think school library media specialists are meant to be. Much
that was written was very thought provoking and fascinating. Thank you
for that!

As a result of the responses, I now think I would be unlikely to use the
software feature I asked about, but I am glad to know that such a
feature does exist in case I ever run across a situation where this
might be the only way I could keep a particular book on the shelves. I
also am even more strongly aware of the need of a strong written
collection development policy. This group is a very important part of my
new career venture; I learn as much (if not more) from all of you as I
do in my classes!

A special thanks to Karen DeFrank, who explained the steps to cut and
paste to post a hit.

Here are the responses [uncensored ;-)] to my inquiry in the order I
received them. You all have my deepest gratitude!

        from Sue Rasmussen:

In the Circulation Plus program from Follett Software you can enter such
a
message so that it will come up each time a student checks out
materials.
Hope this helps.

        from Paul Kreamer:

I agree wholeheartedly that parents not only have that right, they have
an absolute responsibility to do so; *however*, it is not our job as
LMS's to do it for them. And even though I am personally philosophically
opposed to doing so, the logistics of delivering on a promise to filter
kid's material for the parents are mind-boggeling, even with circulation
software to simplify the procedure. Trust me, if you end up in a high
school library like mine serving 1600+ students you will have plenty to
keep you  occupied without screening and censoring for the parent. Bear
in mind that once you accept the responsibility to take on one more
parental responsibility, what happens when you miss one censoring call
and a kid  brings home something his/her parents object to?  In the US
of
Goldberg and Osborne, a lawsuit is what happens. The key to this lies in
collection development tied to a mission statement and a clear
justification for what is available on the shelves. It's so much
easier than trying to gauge the diverse values of each and every set
of parents whose children come  through your doors. You'll sleep much
better at night.

        from Jim Bruce:

Evem though I support the idea of parents being involved in the
reading habits of their children, this concept scares me somewhat.

If you actually institute such a policy you will have the situation
where one of the students in a class can take out a book, but the
one next in the line that tries the same thing gets told to put it
back.
How would you feel if you were ordered to do so?

It also means that you will have to go over all the books in your
library
and rate them according to some sort of scale.  Perhaps a V-chip
would have to be installed at the checkout desk as well.

What will you then do about books that are rated in some sort of
R category?  How do you then defend the purchace of the item
in the first place?  You will create all sorts of interesting
debate on just about whatever rating system you choose.

If you want to tackle this matter seriously, I would provide parents
with a list of the books checked out by their child.  Such a method
would at least not descriminate against a student at the moment
the checkout is being performed.  Then the responsibility would
be placed squarely in the hands of parent and child.

The automation system that we produce will not generate a list of
books read by students, for fear such lists will be eventually
held against individuals.  You can imaging what someone would
pay to find out what Madonna or Bill Clinton read in Jr. High
school.

I think the best all around option is to house only books that you
can defend in terms of the overall positive affect on a young reader's
life.  We are there to educate, so we can't justify buying something
that doesn't contribute to an education in some way.  In that we
do differ from the public library which bus more according to
the interests of the patrons.

        from Leslie Effman:

I don't know of any such circulation censoring software but why would
you
want it anyway.  Family policies are the parents and kids'
responsibilities
and you can't be put in the position of policing what all your kids take
out.  Hopefully, your families will look at what the kids take out and
will
send anything back they're not happy with and have the child take out
something that adheres to their family values.

        Good luck

        from Debby Walters:

Alexandria's Companion automation software has a componet where you can
enter notes about the student which come up whenever the student wants
to check out materials.  I know librarians who have put parental
requests into that area.

        from Frances Knight:

Yes, Athena gives you a chance to add notes that will show on the screen
when the person starts to check out material.

        from Rhonda Bracey:

Our library automation software has a way of doing this, and I have no
doubt that others do so too.

How we deal with this is by having a "patron comment" field into which
such information may be entered. Our new product has both a public and
private comment able to be attached to the patron - only those with the
appropriate security access can view the private comment.

The reason we have done this is that we were concerned that our previous
product which only has facility for one type of comment, had problems in
that whenever the patron's information was displayed on screen (on check
out and check in, as well as their record), the public comment was also
displayed. As students or parent volunteers could also assist at the
circulation desk, having comments about what the child could/couldn't
check out was not a good idea!! When we train users in our system we
strongly advise that such comments NOT be entered - any comment about
the patron should be inocuous and unlikely to cause offence or upset
anybody.

So when developing our latest automation product, we decided to include
both the public (inocuous) and private comment areas, to enable
Teacher-Librarians to do exactly as you have suggested. Our system also
has the ability to attach to patrons particular statuses in addition to
other borrowing categories to which they may belong. Any patron status
can be linked to a parameter which makes anybody with that status unable
to borrow (e.g. status of "Banned from borrowing" can have activated for
it an alert whenever that patron tries to borrow).

If you check with libraries using different automation software you
should find they have similar functions.

I hope this helps.

        from Teresa Fyanes:

I use Folletts Unison program and it allows you to attach messages on a
patron record.  You can input either as a "note" which is hidden and
needs to
be accessed through using an F-Key, or as an "important message"  the
text of
which is brought up on the screen as soon as you scan the patron
barcode.
 Either of these would work for parental preference indicators.

        from Frederick Muller:

I do not know of such software.  Your request concerns me.  I would
never
let such a situation develop.  It is not up to us to control a student's
reading.  It is between a parent and their child.  I know there is a
concern about fiction books with the devil in it so I always point it
out
to students saying that some parents don't want their children reading
such books. but it is between you and your parent.

        from Clete Schirra:

In Follett's Unison, you can enter patron notes for individual patrons.
This could be very time consuming in a large student population.  Is
your
question  refering to elementary, middle or high school students?

*******************************************************************

:-)     Marti Anderson
mailto:marti@inwave.com