HIT: Unlimited Circulation - Yes

[Julia Anne Colvin <colvin@AAPS.K12.MI.US>]

>I have always limited K-1 students to 1 book at a time, & grades 2-5 to 2
>books, because the librarian before me did that, & it seemed to be common
>practice.

>What do you think about not limiting the number of books students can
>check out at a time? I'd like to hear from those who have tried it.
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I limit, but at higher numbers. I do have a friend that did not limit and
the result was that most of them self limited after a few weeks. She highly
recommends it, now that she is my supervisor, I listen to her.
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Here's my policy.........   K-1 book 1st 1 book 2nd- 2 books 3rd- 2 books
and 1 magazine 4th, 5th and 6th - unlimited   My school has approximately
580 students in Gr. K-6.  I have had this policy for the last 14 years.  I
do have a full time Media Secretary.  I think it works wonderfully.  I do
have the policy if you have just 1 overdue book, it freezes your account
and you can't take any more out until it is returned.  I am on a fixed
schedule, but students are allowed in at any time (unless the door is
closed and the lights are out, then no one is home!)   Good luck
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I did it last year in my preK-6 elementary & didn't encounter any problems.
I told the kids they could check out as many as they could keep up with.
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Personally, I think if the goal is to help children learn to love reading
they need to be able to check out more than one book. If the goal is only
to teach responsibility than one book per child is the rule.
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I only limit grades K-4. Grades 5-8 are allowed to check out whatever they
need for pleasure reading and assignments. However, if they have an overdue
book/lost book they cannot check out any more. HTH
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        Well, since you asked - our library practice is 1 per student in
grades K and 1, 2 for grade 2, 3 for grade 3, and "unlimited, within
reason" for grade 4 with a 2 week check out option. We are a K-4 school so
I tell the 4th graders that this is their last chance to read all the books
in the library. The 4th graders also have kindergarten or 1st grade buddies
to read to so they may a book or two for that purpose. I also tell them
that the greatest gift they can give a younger sibling is to read to
him/her and some of them buy into that. Then they are interested in sports,
pets, etc and like to check out multiple copies plus any classroom research
they may be doing plus their own recreational reading. I must say, it works
pretty well. I don't have any more unaccounted books for grade 4 than for
any other grade. Of course, the bottom line, is we want them to read, read,
read- Our superintendent is emphasizing raising standardized text scores
and amount of time spend reading is one of the best ways to prep students.
I must also say, I have many parent volunteers who help check in and shelve
books which is a necessity. Diana Lamey
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My kinders do not check out (administration decision) My first graders get
1 book per time until 2nd semester (and they demonstrate responsibility).
For 2nd I let them have 2 at a time.
After 3rd I tell students "as many as you can be responsible for"--while
reminding them "you are taking $100 worth of books, I don't want to have to
telephone your parents and ask for $100."--This usually gets child to
reconsider the quantity...If a child has been chronically late or lost
books, I remind them and limit quantities.
I am on flex access, so children can return and exchange books as often as
necessary.
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In my school of 270 kids, I have a "quasi" unlimited circulation. I let
K-1's check out 2 at a time and try to keep a close watch on them for
overdues so they don't get so overwhelmed. As for 2-5, but especially
2-3's, I let them check out what they need to keep them busy for their
daily 60 minutes of reading in the classroom. For some children it may be
that they need 4-6 books, depending on their level. It does get out of hand
at times.....but the kids are reading A LOT. We use AR so I need to let
them have access to the books so they can reach their reading goals. We
also have LOTS of AR books.....Right now my circulation is over 10,000
since the 11th of August. The students at my school basically don't have
any other access to books except through our library so I can't justify
limiting them too much.....
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Our circulation system (Columbia) is set with some checkout parameters, all
of which we can override. I use a general rule of thumb - as a guide -
Kinders 1 book, 1st grade - 1, 2nd grade - 2 books, 3rd grade - 3 books,
etc. However, when a student asks how many books can they check out I ask,
"How many books can you manage without having any over due?" I suggest the
number is different for everyone. I guess I'm trying to build some personal
responsibility here, encouraging the students to learn to be good public
citizens, entrusted with public property. It seems an opportunity we have
in the library since this is one place where students can actually choose
and control their interaction with the system. Also, if you limit checkout
to 1 - and the teacher requires a specific kind of book - how can the
student choose something of their own for recreational reading?

I guess, for me it comes down to each student being an individual with
assending and decending levels of need, ability, etc. I love the fact that
the checkout system is set to ask you if you want to "continue" the
checkout process when a student has reached their borrowing limit or has
more than the set amount of overdue books.
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My K's get one book at a time-it's all they can keep up with up. 1-5 get up
to 4 if they like, except for some of my super readers who have been known
to have as many as 8. We are open so they can come anytime and exchange for
new ones. Not all the kids choose to get 4, some just get one.
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At the teacher's request, I do limit kindergarten. However, I tell my
students if they exhibit responsible book behavior like turning in books on
time in good condition, they can check out 3-6 books. This has not been a
problem except with some teachers. I was told that we don't need to limit
books (within reason) by our library administrator so I interpreted that as
a go ahead. I do have students who only want one book at a time and that is
fine, too. I do not charge fines for overdues and send notes out on a
random basis - more at the end of the year.
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I let k take one book and two by the end of the year if they have a good
track record. First starts out with 2 and goes to 3 if all goes well.
Second also starts with 2 and goes to 3 usually very soon. Third can take 4
books. 4-12 grade have unlimited checkout - my rule is that they should
gauge how much they can read in one week without running out of materials
to read. That has been very good for us. Good luck --
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I have not yet tried 'unlimited checkout' but what i did do this year was
to let each student check out one book more than their grade level. The
previous media specialist only allowed grades 1-5 to checkout with only 2
books per student.

Everyone at the school warned me about my plan. They all swore my losses
would be astronomical. I am exceedingly pleased to announce that the amount
of books overdue or not returned so far has dropped greatly from last years
statistics at this time.

However, i did point out to the students how this was increased
responsibility on them, and that they had to prove to me they were up to
this responsibility. So far, they have. I love it, they love it...i think
its worth it. Sure, its more shelving, butI don't mind that as long as kids
are reading.
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I used to do 1 for K and beginning of 1st grade and 2 after that. Last year
(after 15 years of this) I re-thought things and asked myself "why?" Do I
like to have my borrowing limited? No. Picture books don't take long to
read, after all. However I do recognize that we have some issues of
responsibility and availability so I compromised. I am still starting K at
1 book until after Christmas when I will raise them to two and the 1st
graders started to two and I will raise them to three. Everybody else gets
three for their own enjoyment. Where I really loosened up (although I
always waived the rules for research to some extent) is letting them have
whatever they need for research. Oh, they also can choose a magazine and a
video or audio tape beginning in 2nd grade.
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I am a K-12 librarian. My automation system is set up to limit students to
10 books. The librarian before me did the 2 limit thing and it is taking me
a while to get it out of teacher and students makeup! I say "GO FOR IT!" I
prefer to have students having the privilege of getting books whenever they
finish with what they have. In my opinion, that is the only way to make
readers out of kids. ---
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I have never understood why we limit the number of books children take. I
start the first graders with one book (I don't have K) because the check
out process is very slow for them at first (just writing their name is a
big job) but soon move them up to two books. The second graders check out
two books, but one teacher sends them every day (if they want) and the
other twice a week. With the older children when they ask how many books
they can check out (grade 3-5) I ask them how many books they can read in
two weeks, how many they can keep track of and how many they have time to
get in the time their teacher has given them. I have never had a child take
advantage of this and most end up taking only two or three. Because I am
not automated (we just received a grant and should do it this year) I
really don't have any way of knowing how many books any one child has out
at a time.
I started this policy 10 years ago when I started working in this school
(my first job). It made some teachers nervous, but they all accept it now.
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It may be feasable if you have an automated system. You would have to have
a fair policy in place. Make each student earn the right to check out more
books!!!!
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Last year, we had unlimited circulation for grades 4-8. This month we found
out that we made 5th place on the list of schools that rated in the top 10
for reading scores in our county (San Diego - pop. approx.. 2 million, our
town has a pop. of 57,000).
I found that primary teachers wanted a lower limit so they could monitor
the books and reinforce returning books on time. Those students had the
limit that the teachers set.
The students loved it, those who read a lot could read more, and those who
didn't, didn't check out a lot at one time. Only two students had a return
problem, and both of those were cases of moving without returning the books.
Yes, I spent a lot more time stamping and shelving, but it was worth it.
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Some can handle, some can not. I let kids who prove themselves responsible
have many books. Those who continually lose books have a lower number of
books. My Ks start with one and work up to two or three. My first start
with two and go to three. Second graders start with five. Third through
fifth may have up to 10 out.
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I can't ignore replying to this. I started doing this also because that's
the way I inherited the system. At first Kdgs can only check out the books
on display or in the bins (not in the shelves) for a couple weeks so they
get used to using their stick as a checkout instrument (a tongue depressor
with their barcode and teacher's initials on it) and get used to bringing
one back to get another one. By the third time they come as a whole class,
they have seen the first and second graders come in independently to get
their own sticks out of the old card catalog drawers. The older kids know
how to use their sticks as shelf markers so we have a demo right then and
they feel very grown up to be able to get the books on the shelves. I still
stick to one book at that time so they really get the idea that it's a
one-to-one math thing. You borrow a book, you return a book, you get a new
book! After 2 months (aboout 8 times with me), we let them take out 2
unless they have consistently been late with the one.

The other more important issue is the one of letting the child select the
materials. Last year I met with the k parents at the k orkientation and let
them know how important it is for adults to read "too hard" books to their
kids. If someone has a problem then encourage the kid to take out a
beautiful photo non-fiction book that s/he can enjoy looking at. I don't
get into the parent who wants me to "help them choose" issue as I think the
kid needs to learn how to choose. We do talk about it at the lesson times
about how you can know if a book is a good choice. I actually ask them to
help each other problem solve what to do if you don't have anyone at home
who can read out loud to you. they come up with wonderful ideas!

We have open library all the time so the kdg kids learn how to do searches
and the kdg did so many with us last year that there are droves of first
graders coming into the library all during the day throughout the week, not
just at their assigned time with me! We are so excited that after 3 years
of trying to get this going, the kids are the ones who are asking the
teachers to let them come get a new book because they are done with the
ones the had.

Also, if a child goes thru the work of looking a book up on the computer
and we need to put it on reserve, when the book comes in, we let them take
that out in addition to the ones they have checked out already (generally 2
is our limit, too). If they are doing research, they can have more than 2
books, also. I don't like to talk about the limits, just that when they are
done, come get another one! We have dramatically lessened our overdue books
by changing how we talked about what they want and need. Only the deadbeats
(kids who have a book out for 2 months and haven't paid to replace it) hear
about limits. I don't think last year I even had to discuss that they have
2 weeks to keep a book because the concept mentioned above was the point-(a
little chant)-We're open for biz all during school, so come on in-don't be
a fool! You say the book you have-you're all done? Come on in for another
one!
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I had always limited the children as well because it was back practice.
This year I tell the children they can take up to 5 books as long as they
think they can get to them in a weeks time. If they consistantly forget the
materials then I reserve the right to deny the privilege. I feel the books
are here for their use and enjoyment as my collection is large enough to
withstand the usage. The public library allows more than one or two. I
still only allow one book for kindergarten and two for first grade to start
the school year. Hope this helps your dilemma.
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As you can see from my signature, I am a high school media specialist. The
elementary school my niece attends limits her to one book. She is in the
second grade. I not sure if this rule applies to all grade levels. I often
take her to the public library. She thinks the "real library" (her words,
not mine) is better than the "school library" because they let you check
out as many books as you want. They also charge fines for lost and missing
books. The elementary school media center does not.

I hope you aren't offended by this response. I thought you might be
interested in a second grader's opinion.
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I too inherited a 2 book and 1 magazine each limit. I finally realized out
school had over 1500 students in the late 60s and there was just enough to
go around. When the population settled around 450, I used unlimited
circulation (with me having the final say about how many). Iwas rarely
abused. If you have flexible scheduling, it doesn't make any difference,
they can come in every day.
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Anne Colvin, Librarian
Mitchell Elementary School
Ann Arbor, Michigan
colvin@aaps.k12.mi.us

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