We've discussed rationales for inventory before, so I'm sure a search of the
archives would net more ideas, but off the top of my head, I can think of a couple
reasons to inventory school library collections....
This is my first year at these two schools and I'm finding a lot of books which are
in the catalog, but aren't on the shelf. In the hundreds. I'd like to remove those
records, so students will stop trying to look for them. I think it's prudent to do
an inventory at the end of the year to find out which books are truly missing. This
was always a frustration for both patrons and staff when I worked in the public
library and I'm sure that those libraries would benefit from the occasional (not
necessarily annual) inventory.
An annual inventory, over a few years, would be one piece of evidence to convince
the administration that we need to tighten security. We are the stewards of the
resources in times of tight budgets and if we're hemorrhaging items, we and our
admin
need to know that. In each of my buildings, every staff member has a key to the
library. I have a feeling that items are disappearing because staff members have
access to the collection and help themselves when we're not open and available to
check
the books out to them. I've had this happen before (a retiring staff member
returned a large number of items that he had in his classroom but had never
bothered to check out -- about $1000 worth or 40% of my annual budget). I'm fairly
certain it's
happening here -- I have a teacher who asked for a list of Opposing Viewpoints
books and now none of them are on the shelf but none of them are checked out. In
addition, one of my buildings has no security system and we're constantly having
books
returned which were not checked out in the first place. Heaven knows how many we've
lost. If I could convince the administration to purchase a security system and
restrict staff access to hours that we are available to help them, I'd want to do an
inventory for a couple of years after to document the decrease in missing items.
After that, I'd be less likely to do an inventory every year, but I still think
every few years would provide useful information.
Schools districts in Washington state tend to be self-insured, so they need to have
an accurate accounting to know what would need to be replaced in the event of a
disaster. I've worked in districts that required us to inventory supplies as well as
library materials for that reason. I'm not sure knowing how many boxes of $1.50
paperclips we have is important, but I do think that knowing how many of the more
expensive books, videos, etc., are missing can be useful.....
That's my two cents, :)
Julie
Julie Olson, Librarian
Ford and Keithley Middle Schools
Tacoma, WA
Julie_Olson@fp.k12.wa.us
--------------------------------------------------------------------
All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law.
To change your LM_NET status, e-mail to: listserv@listserv.syr.edu
In the message write EITHER: 1) SIGNOFF LM_NET 2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL
3) SET LM_NET MAIL 4) SET LM_NET DIGEST * Allow for confirmation.
LM_NET Help & Information: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/
Archive: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/archive/
EL-Announce with LM_NET Select: http://elann.biglist.com/el-announce/
LM_NET Supporters: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/ven.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------
LM_NET
Mailing List Home