Ck out policy Pt 3 LAST

[Debra Ventling <DebraVent@AOL.COM>]

**In Missouri we are suppose to have an "open library" system, so the
library is open from 8:30 (when kids come in the building) until 8:50
(offical start of school) and 3:00-3:20 for open check out time.   Students
must have a Pass to come to the library at that time.  I tell my students
they can get two new books everyday, if their teacher will allow  them to
come the library during those open times.  I don't know if that  concept
would passify your "parent"; sounds like he just wants to be a  "disturber".
Just a thought,

**My school has the same policy, for several reasons.  Students come weekly
on a fixed schedule with their class.  Two books seems to be a good number to
actually read in a one week period.  Also, I have no aide and only one parent
volunteer for about 1 hour each week.  Physically and time-wise , I don't
think I could keep
up with the shelving for any more than that. However, I do make exceptions.
If a student is working on a project - class or independent, I allow 3-4
books at a time.  For spring break, EVERYONE gets 3 books to keep them
reading, and over Christmas break, everyone gets 4 books for the same reason.
 (NOTE:  the students are already asking about Christmas break - they LOVE
the special privilege of getting more books!)    ALso, even tho' I'm on a
fixed schedule, students know they are welcome to come at anytime on a pass
and exchange books, so if they finish the two before their class comes, they
CAN come and exchange them.  So
really, they are NOT limited to JUST two books a week...

**How old is the daughter? Our policy is as follows: one book per week for
kindergarten and first grade; two books plus their required book report book
per week for second through fourth grade; books as needed for fifth grade
through eighth grade. We will also be flexible on an individual basis if we
have to be.

**Last year I allowed unlimited checkouts as long as there were no overdue
books on that patron's record and it was a nightmare. I can't tell you how
many times I heard "I never checked out THAT book!" (from both students AND
teachers). My losses were high, compliance with paying for lost books was
low, and I will never do it again. HTH

**I have a K-5 school and prior to this year my policy was 2 books with
exceptions for book related assignments.  But this year I changed it and let
the children take up to 5 books.  My collections has grown nicely due to a
generous budget and felt the kids should be able to take more without it
greatly effectly my selection.  Of course the first few weeks the kids all
took out 5 books, but found is has settled in to only the
children who can really handle 5 books a week taking that many.

**Ethically I am with the parent! When I worked in an elementary school, I
put no demands or restrictions on the students' circulation - as long as they
returned the materials.  No problems (other than the normal chronic overdue
offenders).

**In the elementary schools of the district I work for now, the librarian
makes the students check out one book - and only one book.  No more, no less.
 I find that distasteful!  When the fifth graders come to me at the middle
school, they are sooooo excited because they can check out as many books as
they need (we discuss need vs want) and they do not have to check out a book.
 It's so funny how exciting choice can be.

**We don't have a district wide policy, but each librarian makes her own.  I
allow grades 2-4 to check out 2 books and 5th grade may check out up to four
because they do more research projects.  When we had K-1 in the building,
they were only allowed one book each week.  Hope this helps.

**I am a Media Specialist in a K-5 school.  Our students have unlimited check
out except for Kindergarten.  Kindergarten parents have requested that the
limit be 1 book for the first semester.  We suggest students check out no
more than 5 books at a time because of backpack weight.  Students can
exchange books every day.  My philosophy is a book on the shelf is a book
that is not being read and if a child does not have books in hand, they can't
read the books.  We have had few problems with this.  Some first grade
teachers object and want to limit numbers of books.  I encourage the
unlimited check out for many reasons but responsibility is one that
parents agree is important.  Being responsible for library books is a natural
consequences situation.  The AASL standards supports unlimited check out.
Hope this helps!

**Don't they have anything better to complain about?  My kids check out 2
books, except Kindergarten, which checks out 1.  Kids come come every  day,
though, to exchange books.  That's up to 10 a week!  How many books  can a
kid read in one day?

**Why the limit?  If there's a solid right, explain that. If that student
takes more, are other students' rights to library materials accessiblility
being curtailed/denied? We're a public high school and don't limit number and
 it usually doesn't bother us. Because we're loose, we can chase students
when we need to, they seem to understand and cooperate.

**Our school and basically all the elementary schools in the District limit
check-out to one book, however, in my school any parent that will come and
talk to me can raise the number of books their child checks out to anything
they want to.  If you have a parent that cares enough to talk to you
personally they are probably going
to suppor the retrieval of said books.  I  have students listed
alphabetically behind the check-out desk.  But they  will tell you in a hurry
they can get more than one.  We then, of course,  have those that say they
want to do it also and we say just bring in a  responsible adult and we will
be delighted to put their name on the list  too.  I
have a school of about 500 and about 10% take advantage of the  offer.

**Surely this is more a problem of how often students can check books  out.
Any limit could be seen as a violation of rights. I allow four  at a time,
plus I'm pretty flexible about extras, partly because my  very small library
is over full of books and I'd like to get them off  my shelves and onto
students'. But I have one boy who
checks out 2 at  a time, and changes them everyday. Our public library allows
9. What  rights are we talking about here?

**I am the Library Media Specialist at an elementary school which serves
kindergarten thru 5th grade.  We set our own guidelines, not our district.
We allow children in grades K-5 and 1st grade to check out 1 book at a time,
2nd graders get 2 books at a time and 3rd thru 5th graders get 3 books at a
time.  They can come back
every day to return and check out books if they want to.  Hope this helps.


**I saw your post. At the risk of sounding rude, I think that parent is full
of baloney saying you're limiting his daughter's rights. Give me a break!  We
also have a 2-book limit, for grades 4-6. Grades K-3 get 1 book and Grade 3
will will get 2 after Christmas break.  Here's what I suggest: allow the girl
to come with a pass anytime during the week to get new books, so she doesn't
have to wait till her class comes. We do this all the time for our fast
readers. BUT, they have to return the book(s) they have out before they get
new ones. Some schools do allow a one-for-one trade (return 1, get 1, even if
you have another one out.)  By doing this, you are satisfying your district
rule (which is quite legitimate as we have small budgets and don't
get reimbursed when books are lost), and are still allowing the girl to get
the books when she needs them. If this is done in a very positive way, the
parent really can't complain.   Good luck!!   Janet M.

**Deb,  I am in a k5.  The Ks are allowed one book at a time. 1-5ths are now
allowed up to 6 at a time it was raised this year from five.  This is because
they need 2books for silent reading, 2 for Buddy Reading, and 2 for research
for their unit studies.  The check out period is three weeks.  Renewals are
unlimited as long as noone is
waiting for the item BUT they must bring the item in for renewal. We do not
charge overdue fines.  We do charge the shelflist proce for lost books and
return the money if they pay for it and then find it.  We have very few lost
books.

**I tell my kids they can check out as many as they want as long as they
don't have any overdues and no one else needs them.  I've only had about
three students check out more than 10 at a time (99% of the time it's no more
than two or three), and those w ere all special ed. students who Icould
easily begin to limit until they got
in the swing of bringing books back regularly.  Having an unlimited number of
check-outs makes you look real great.  The kids love it, but few actually
take advantage of the privilege.  The books are there for them to enjoy and
learn from.  Why would a District want to limit them to two at a time?  I
don't get it.

**My students (1-5) get 4 books at a clip, except for some of my really avid
readers who often have out as many as 8.  Do you have open checkout?  My kids
can come and check out books whenever they wish- I have many who get a book
or two per day.  Most of the kids think 4 is to many to handle & keep up with
and opt for 2 or so
at a time.

**If I had restricted checkout- i.e., they only came once a week, then most
of my kids would end up with 8-10 books at a time. I limit my students to one
or two in k - 2nd, 2 or 3 in 3rd - 5th, 3 or 4 in 6th - 8th. The kids can
come in at recess or after school, so I encourage them to choose fewer and
come more often. We don't have
lockers, so their backpacks are already too heavy! We also have a lower
income community and all of our books were purchased less than 3 years ago
(we just opened in Jan. '98). This means that many of our library books are
$20+ to replace. A child who lost their backpack would probably have over
$100 in textbooks and library books to pay for, and if he's already
gettingfree breakfast and lunch, it's going to take his/her folks a long time
to pay!

**Besides, remind that parent that there is always the public library, and/or
you'll be glad to issue them a check out number if they'll come in and help
shelve for an hour or two a week. Then they can check out 5 (or whatever) at
a time. I also tell my volunteer parents that they are welcome to check out
books as long as their
child's class is not studying that topic or that it is not needed by another
class. Otherwise your volunteers would check out all your books on that topic
and leave nothing for the other students. And the parents need to realize
that THEIR STUDENTS need to find the books, not have the parents do it for
them. . . !

**My school doesn't have a district policy concerning the number of books
checked out by students, but I have created my own limits.  This is my third
year in the district, but my first year in my present building.  This school
is not small; we have approximately 480 students.  My predecessor had an
interesting method of limiting
check outs.  He had 1st graders checking out 1 book, second graders checking
out 2, and so forth.  We are a K-4 school so this fall when I came on the
scene announcing that all students grades 1 through 4 would be checking out 2
books and a magazine or book & tape (a total of 3 items) I got some sour
looks from the students, but I've never been instructed to do otherwise by my
principal.  My rationale is that this school's library is open 5 days a week
(unlike all of the other elementary schools in the district who only have
library services for 1 day per
week) and I told them them they were welcome to check out 2 books per day
every day of the week if they wanted to.  It did impress them when I said
that they could actually check out 10 books per week if they did this every
day.  Of course, nobody does.  I do have some loyal kids who come in almost
every morning and check
out one or two new books, but they are by far the minority.  Besides the fact
that they have access to books every day, I simply do not have the time to
shelve all of the books that they borrow (and may not even read).  I do have
a half-time assistant and a couple of good volunteers to shelve, but I would
be snowed under if my
fourth graders were each taking 4 books.

**I do have the same limits at a second school that I service.  I am assigned
there for four hours per week.  (I don't even want to begin on that subject!)
 One of the reasons, besides the labor of shelving, is the small size of the
collection.  If I have them checking out tons of books at one time now there
won't be any "new" books for
them to read in the spring.

**I really don't see how this student's "rights" are being violated.  You are
providing her with the same opportunities as all of your other students; why
should she be give special privileges?  If she is a TAG kid or someone who
cannot be kept happy with your collection, how about the public library?


**Hi, Well this is a new one! Tell the parent that you are not the public
library! What rights? Our students have checkout limits at the elementary
level, but they can come in at any time to get different books. I make
allowances when they have special class assignments. Stick to your guns!
Again I ask what rights are being
violated? Good luck. Let us know how this turns out for you.

**I've never heard of a district setting that policy.  It's always been a
local decision wherever I've worked.  But here is my standard - with the
understanding that students can come back at any time and check out more
books, as long as they return some that they checked out before --
Pre-k - K - one book
1st grade - 2 books
2nd grade - 3 books and a magazine
3rd and up - 4 books and a magazine.

**At my school (500 students) we allow 2 books at a time for leisure reading
and up to another 2 books for classroom assigned research (research books
stay in school most of the time, but do go home if the student needs to work
on their project at home).  I think allowing only 2 books for leisure reading
is enough for several
reasons:    -students can probably only read 2 books in a week, however if
they finish and need more, they are allowed to come to the library for book
exchange     -they don't have to scramble to find so many books on library
day     -more books are on the shelf for other students     -with 45 minutes
for lesson and book checkout, I would have to give up more         lesson
time for book selection if they
could choose 3 or 4 books

**I have had kids come from other districts and complain about only getting 2
books.  When I explain the rationale, they seem OK with it.  Some kids have
said they could check out 1 book in grade 1, 2 books in grade 2, 3 books in
grade 3, etc.  I hate to think of a 5th grader lugging home 5 books at once.
It will be interesting to hear what you find out.


**I do not limit the number of books checked out in my library. With the
holidays approaching, however, I am reqesting that all books be turned in and
I am not
    Some students can handle this policy and others have a hard time. I have
to accept that I will lose a few books along the way, but I feel the benefits
outweigh the costs.     We are a private school, however, and have more
flexibility than a large public school district (such as the one my own boys
attend!). Hope this helps. I did see a public school web page that supports
this same policy. I can't seem to find it right now, but will e-mail the web
address if I do.

**Several years ago our district brought Dr. David Loertscher for librarian
training. He visited each school and presented suggestions for improving our
programs. One of his big things is NOT limiting student check-out. I imagine
if you contact him or look in databases for some of his articles, you can
find hard copy supporting his
premise that giving kids increased check-out rights is important. I tell kids
they can have whatever materials they need as long as they do not have
circulation problems with overdues, etc., as long as they are not "cleaning
out" a section, and as long as they really need the items. Most kids will
only take 2-3 items anyway, but that
way you have enabled the kids who are your real users. I do not believe it
has increased my losses. It may cut down on theft, in fact. I highly
recommend allowing kids to take the materials they need, and think you can
find documentation to back up this practice. Good luck,

**How much dollar value are you willing to sign out to each and every student
in your school, knowing that families move away without notice, bookbags get
soaked with leaking thermos bottles and families are held to pay, dogs do
things.  I personally would like my own child to only have a reasonable
number of  books at one
time, but to have unlimited access to trading those books back for other
titles.

**We have grades 6,7 and 8 and allow 3 books at a time. We haven't been
questioned.

**Just want to say that I thought I had heard it all!!!!  Just for your
statistics, we are a K-3 building and our K-1 can only check out 1 book a
week. Our 2-3 can check out 2.  When our students whine, I always point out
that the public library is ready and waiting for them to check out as many as
they want...but due to the size of our
collection and the size of our staff, we can only do what we can do!  We also
have an open checkout period each day so that they could come in and check
out two new books every day.  Please let us know how this all turns out!

While I am at an elementary school, we also restrict our students to checking
out 2 books at a time for grades 3- 5.  K-2 may only check out 1 at a time.
Hope this helps.

Again,  thanks for the responses.  They were quiet varied and you all have
given us something to think about.

Debra Ventling
Debravent@aol.com

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