At some point, trying to get a book back isn't 'helping kid learn
responsibility'. There are just too many other considerations conflating =
the
situation. We accept a certain amount of wear with each checkout. Maybe =
we
should consider a certain 'acceptable loss' percentage.=20
Our situations vary, but my school is close to 40% free and reduced =
lunch.
We routinely are letting a kid be responsible for $100 to $150 worth of
books. With a circulation of 22,000+ with 1100 kids, we have about 50 =
books
we know we won't get back from about 20 kids. Sometimes that kid =
couldn't do
the math to figure out how many lawns they'd have to mow to pay for =
them,
sometimes it could mean the difference between eating lunch with friends =
or
scarfing dry bread peanut butter sandwitches in the locker bay for a =
month,
sometimes the kid might forfeit their cellphone for a week as lesson =
from
parent, and sometimes that kid is willing to come work in the library =
after
school for however long it takes to avoid having to tell dad.
I got whacked this year with book ordered from England as it wasn't
available in U.S. to finish the series. My credit card, me spending ton =
of
time getting refunded, and book lost on first checkout. I might be a =
slow
learner; reordered it and another book from another series..... And I =
wound
up paying the public library for a magazine I checked out. The lesson I
learned; photocopy the article on learning how to use a propane torch. =
You'd
think a college graduate could have seen that coming.
Robert Eiffert, Librarian
Pacific Middle School
Beiffert at egreen wednet edu
Beiffert at Comcast net
=20
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