Thank you so much for all of your wonderful ideas! I'm moving into a
new location (renovated) in a couple weeks, and when I'm settled in,
I'll be trying some of them, for sure! Here are the responses I
received:
We finally instituted a fines system - $ .10 a day and that helps quite
a bit, but kids still don't return the books. IT's better, though.
Every so often you can call an amnesty day and forgo charges, but you
can't do that too often. You can even charge $.25 for high school kids.
I wouldn't reward them positively, though.
**********************************
What worked for me when I was a middle school librarian:
This was actually in place when I started at the school. At the end of
the year there were a lot of cool day trips, like to Kings Dominion, the
beach, stuff like that and if they had overdue or lost books they did
not go. The teachers got the overdue lists the day before, showed them
to the kids and enforced it all the way. On the day of a trip I would go
to school and find a pile of cash and a pile of books waiting and
everyone had left on the trip. The teachers enforced because they wanted
to teach responsibility and had no patience for any kind of
inappropriate behaviors.
*******************************************
I don't use incentives or sugar coating to get books back. I think it
is the student's responsibility to get it back in a "somewhat"* timely
fashion. I do not like rewarding irresponsible behavior. I also do not
charge fines.
When a book is four weeks overdue, the student receives a bill with a
notice stapled to it. This notice says that the student has three days
to return the book or pay for it if it is lost. If the book is NOT
returned within three days, the student must serve up to five lunch
detentions (which stop the minute the book is returned) in the library.
If the book or money still has not showed up after the student has
served five detentions, then a letter and/or phone call gies home. I
know that some of the kids have complicated lives, so to help in the
finding of the book - which can be at mom's house, dad's house,
grandma's etc., I try to find a picture of the cover on titlewave,
Amazon, or whatever, and send that along with the letter.
By the way, the key is that it is a LUNCH detention. They hate missing
the socializing that goes on in the cafeteria. If, however, they choose
not to show, it then becomes an administrative matter and they are
assigned an after school detention by the principal. I try, as hard as I
can, to keep it out of administrative hands - I would rather handle it
myself, but if the student does not cooperate, then I have no choice.
*I say somewhat, because I know that all of us can be forgetful. But
four weeks overdue means that the student has already received two
overdue notices and one bill notice through the homeroom.
*****************************************
YEARS AGO WE HAD THE PROBLEM AND WENT TO A SYSTEM OF REQUIRING THE
'BORROWER' WHO DID NOT RETURN OR LOST A BOOK TO REPLACE IT BY MAKING A
NONRUFUNDABLE BOOK ORDER AT THE LOCAL BOOKSTORE THAT WAS DELIVERED TO
OUR SCHOOL LIBRARY. IF BOOK OUT OF PRINT THEN THE DEPOSIT WITH THE BOOK
STORE WAS USED BY US FOR A SUITABLE REPLACEMENT BOOK. ACTUALLY THIS
PLAN CAME ABOUT BECAUSE THE AUDITORS REFUSED TO LET THE LIBRARY HAVE THE
MONIES PAID FOR LOST BOOKS. THIS WAAY WE DID NOT HANDLE THE MONEY AND
WE GOT THE REPLACEMENT VALUES. IT WAS PURE MAGIC. SO MUCH TROUBLE FOR
MOM AND DAD!
OUR LOSSES DIMINISHED AMAZINGLY.
************************************
This has been a topic that has come up cyclically on LM-Net. Have you
tried the archives? I have gotten good ideas over the years and was able
to use some of them- depends on your school. Our students may not
participate in sports, get a parking pass, get yearbooks early, get
their diploma if they have any fines. I make sure the fines from our
student get entered ASAP - about once a month - in our all-school fine
database. These things work for the majority of kids. The ones who leave
early or move in the dark of night, I do not get, but it is effective
for a large majority - I would say 90%. In my dreams, I see us turning
the remainder over to a collection agency, but so far, no one has backed
me on this one.
***************************************
I agree with you. Our school has the no report card policy, but I don't
follow it because I always figured that the kids who don't bring books
back are often precisely the ones who don't want report cards. We have a
fine of 5 cents per day. I usually forgive fines of 50 cents or less.
There are always some who accumulate fines of $3 or more and some who
eventually will have to pay for the book. In my school it all eventually
catches up with them as seniors don't get to walk in graduation if they
have outstanding books or fines of any kind. Simply making students
aware of this is often enough to curb the bad behavior. This year I am
trying another tactic which is also designed to boost circulation. I
have a running activity called "Wednesday Winner." Every time a student
checks out a book, he or she is allowed to fill out a ticket for a
drawing held every Wednesday. A student with overdue books or fines
cannot win. The Wednesday winner gets to select one item from my "Goodie
Box." I have a big plastic tub which I have labeled Goodie Box with
stick on bright letters and stocked with dollar store type items--cool
pens, pencils, book covers, candy, stress balls, key chains, etc. Then
I post the name of the week's winner in the announcements.
****************************************
I used to hold drawings and announce winners over the PA. The drawings
were really a teacher randomly calling out a student ID number (we had a
range of numbers). If the kid was clear, he got a prize. If the kid was
not clear, he did not. I would get on the PA and say, "Too bad for
student #84374220 (whatever bar code number was)--this person had
overdue books. Great for (another number). That is Suzie Sweet, and she
gets a FREE CAR! Come on down!" The loser's name was never given so
privicy was safe. Suzie would then come down and get a little toy car.
This was in junior high and even the 8th graders loved getting the
little prizes. Sometimes it was candy instead but I kept it cheap. I
would do this every now and then to round up books. Kids would really
start coming in with their books after I gave a car or two. I would have
them "parked" right outside the library in the parking lot and winners
could go pick the one they wanted. It was lots of fun.
***************************************
One thing that works really well for me, is that our school has the rule
that students who owe library materials are not allowed to take their
final exams at the end of each semester. I got all the books back or
paid for (several hundred) except 4 last week when exams were held!!!
We also do the no-report-card thing but that is not as successful.
**************************************
What about a popcorn party instead of a pizza party?
************************************
One year I did Books for Brownies. I gave each student who had a clear
library record a homemade brownie, but my school nurse had a fit because
of allergies. It worked and I had very few books out. I'm also having
lots of problems and don't know what to do.
************************************
We have a 'no progress report/no transcripts until all
library books are returned' policy and I do charge nominal
lates fines. I have found that 99% of the students will
return books at the end of the school year in order to
receive their progress reports (you should see the line to
the library). I would not change the policy because a very
few do not respond for whatever reason. For those kids, I
mail letters to the parents, and the parent coordinators will
call home. It doesn't always work, but at least it's an
attempt.
I would not reward kids with food or gifts for doing the
right thing and being responsible. We've dumbed down so much
and have come to expect so little in general that to continue
like that sends the wrong messsage.
*****************************
Our school exempts students from final exams if there attendance and
average in the class meets certain criteria. But, even if they qualify
for the exemptions, but owe library books, textbooks, cafeteria bills,
etc. they are not exempted until all are cleared up. That helps each
semester, but many are still overdue/lost or owe fines and don't take
care of the problem because they didn't qualify to be exempt from the
semester final.
******************************
I use Jolly Ranchers at the high school level. Always amazes me what
they will do for a piece of candy. I also go around to the English
classes on Thursday, which also helps.
******************************
Ice cream sundaes are always a pretty cheap hit. You can get a gallon
of ice cream, a couple toppings, for under $10. I did a sundae party in
the library last month. I had 35 students, and went through 1 and a
half gallon buckets of ice cream. Just make sure you put the toppings
on yourself. Other wise the kids get greedy and pile it on!
******************************
We did an ice-cream sundae party last May to get all the books in...
Advisory classes that had no students with overdues were eligible for
the drawing (we made a list of eligible classes each day for 1 week)...
The faster they all got their books in the better the chance to win. It
wasn't too expensive either... 3 gals. Ice cream with toppings, small
bowls, spoons and napkins for 30 kids ran about $15.00, and we all split
the cost (we have 3 staff members in the library).
Tish Carpinelli, Media Specialist
Lower Cape May Regional H.S.
Cape May, NJ
carpinelli@lcmr.capemayschools.com
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