LM_NET: Library Media Networking
Subject: HIT #1: pencils
rom owner-lm_net@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU Thu Oct 29 16:04:45 1998
Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 16:03:51 -0500
From: Sharon Krebs <krebss@FORT-MILL.K12.SC.US>
Subject: HIT #3: pencils
WBuy only "primary" or "beginner" pencils with eraser tops, the big fat kind
of pencils. Mine are black. Place a narrow, long plastic basket at each
table, and keep five pencils in each basket. I always keep one more pencil
than the number of chairs I have at each table. My tables are round with
four chairs, so you should adapt for your situation. The pencils are not
desirable, and no one else in the school uses them, so they are always
identified as library pencils. I notice them right away if a student walks
out with one, or if one ends up in a classroom. At the card catalog, keep
a small basket with golf pencils, very cheap from your wholesale golf
supplier.
I bought cute pencils with the Library
name on them, thinking that the kids wouldn't take the ones so plainly
marked from the library, but they went out even faster. I came upon this
solution, and it has worked with me. I require every student to bring a
new pencil at the beginning of the school year just as they bring other
school supplies. It is on the supply list and everything. Then I keep
these pencils and whenever I need new pencils, I just go to my stash. We
have 575 kids, and I have never run out of pencils since I started this a
few years ago. Some years we get down to just a few by the end of the
year, but I have never run out. Some years I will have a whole lot
left over, so the next year, I will give half of the pencils I get to the
music teacher or the computer lab and then we all have pencils.
One, buy those stubby golf pencils with no erasers.
Two, never put out a new box. Put out a half-dozen or enough for one
class.
Three, ask students to hand in pencils at end of activity.
Four, buy cheap pencils so it doesn't drive you crazy. I buy ten gross
of "Grade A Warehouse Pencils" a year from Kaylor's (in Alabama?).
I too was losing pencils like crazy - until I marblized them - now
everyone knows those are mine and the kiddos return them if they see
anyone with one outside the media center (even teachers!!). To marblize
take a piece of aluminum foil and crinkle it up them spread it flat.
squiggle two colors of acrylic paint ( like blue and yellow) on the foil
and then fold the foil in half and press it down with your hand all
over. Open it up and the paint should be "marblized". Now roll your
pencils in it - I put masking tape over the erasers before I start to
protect them - now you have pencils that everyone recognizes as yours.
-- I've managed to scrounge those UGLY fat blue pencils without erasers
from our K-2 school and the grades 3-5 (at my school) don't particularly
like them so they stay put longer. Every so often I put out an appeal to
return the fat blue pencils lying around to the library and a few
struggle back. But they are so reminicent of K-2 that most kids don't
want to be associated with them...plus NO ERASER! Yikes, it's the kiss
of death.
I know the middle school attaches flags to the pencils that are
obviously the library's.
I used to color the tops of the pencils with magic
marker, and nothing ever worked. Kids looted us of pencils.
NOT ANY MORE (heh heh heh)!!! Highsmith makes a lovely blue & white pencil
that says LIBRARY PENCIL on the side! I'm the only one in the school with
these pencils, natch, and I almost NEVER lose them. Kids say, "Hey--that's one
of Miss Freeman's pencils. Better give it back!" Even teachers don't take
them. I buy a big box every 2 years or so and only get rid of them when
they're nubs. Terrific, no? So check your Highsmith cat. There. Isn't that
better? One less thing to worry about this week!
Buy only "primary" or "beginner" pencils with eraser tops, the big fat kind
of pencils. Mine are black. Place a narrow, long plastic basket at each
table, and keep five pencils in each basket. I always keep one more pencil
than the number of chairs I have at each table. My tables are round with
four chairs, so you should adapt for your situation. The pencils are not
desirable, and no one else in the school uses them, so they are always
identified as library pencils. I notice them right away if a student walks
out with one, or if one ends up in a classroom. At the card catalog, keep
a small basket with golf pencils, very cheap from your wholesale golf
supplier.
Mine vanish all the the time too. Requiring them to bring a pencil will NOT
work- to many will forget. My predecessor (who seemed to have way more spare
time than I do) cut out "flags" of red tagboard, covered them with strapping
tape and then tapped them to the top of the pencils. I suspect it cut down on
wandering pencils but somehow cutting tagboard is # 987 on my to do list.
I buy boxes of "golf" (the little short pencils) at the office supply store.
They are already sharpened and use them in the library. They don't have an
eraser so I tell the kids to just deal with it when they make a mistake. I
box runs me about $4 and lasts almost all year.
We use the wee golf pencils-- no eraser means less desirable.
Plus, they are so small, we don't mind if one disappears. They
are sold by the gross -- perfect for middle school kids :
I include a gross of pencils in my budget and keep sharpening. After
the first month, it tapered down to just a few by accident. I would remind
students gently and consistently each time -- and now we're all happy.
I do require them to bring their own pencils.
I would strongly urge you to do that -- there is really no other way to
keep pencils in the library. It will take them a little while to remember
to do that, but if you have some yucky old pencils with toothmarks and no
erasers for them to use if they forget theirs, they'll get much better at
remembering them. It worked for me!
I always get those ugly, short, no-eraser golf pencils ... no one
wants them! :-)
==Anytime the classes are doing written projects I have them bring their
own pencils to the library.
I put out about 4 at a time of the fat red Prima pencils.(The older kids
are too embarrassed to be seen using them anywhere else but the library.) I
also have used regular pencils that I attach a flag on the eraser end,
using 1 inch wide cloth tape with the word library printed in caps. These
also do not roll on the counter.
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to have the same problem. I tried buying unattractive pencils,
including golf pencils, and primary (thick) pencils. They walked. I put
the library name on them. They left even faster. I attached them with
chains, string, ribbons. I never even SAW the kids take them off!
Finally, I found a most satisfactory solution, and I never had to buy
another pencil again. I announced over the loudspeaker to the whole school
that I wanted SHORT pencils. Would everyone in cleaning out their desks
give me their pencils when they were too short. Many rooms took up a
collection then and there. After that, about twice a year, usually just
before a vacation, I would ask for another donation.
I ended up with so many pencils, I could always GIVE them away to needy people!
I've had good luck with white pencils with the library symbol and Library
Pencil printed in blue on the pencils. I think I got them from Highsmith.
I pretty much solved my pencil loss problem by buying a batch of pencils from
a library supplier (either Brodart or Highsmith, I can't remember which).
These pencils are white with a large blue logo which reads "Library Pencil".
You can't mistake them for anyone else's pencil, so I have a very good chance
of getting them back when they are inadvertantly walked off with. I
have also occasionally picked one up lying around somewhere in the faculty
room or workroom or office or somewhere. I know it's mine, and I simply
"repossess" it.
(1) I order a gross of Highsmith Pencils each year. They are
distinctively colored blue and white and say LIBRARY PENCIL. I've also
gotten the ones that say:Library Media Center which have a metallic blue.
These are also stolen, but at a slower rate. I try to announce how many
pencils I've lent out to a group and then I demand the same number back at
the end of the period. Most of the time it works to tell the class or
group they aren't allowed to leave till the missing pencils show up!
(2) The other thing I do that helps some, is sell pencils for a
quarter and erasers from $.05 to $.25, usually from Eggerts. The profit
goes for special library stuff like bookmarks and display materials for my
annual readathon or National Library Week, etc. The principal gave me his
OK. I keep them on a small cart that I wheel out during a library period
while they are choosing books.
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