I received 24 replies to this Target request:
"How much time do you give to your teachers and administrators
for books? I'm on Follett. Follett's default setting is 6 weeks.
Is that about right? Does anyone give a full semester?
Does anyone have a policy which charges an academic department for a book or
material if it hasn't been returned after a set period of time?
For example, if a teacher has a book for a full year and doesn't return it by the
end of the school year, the asset is transferred to their academic department, and
their department is billed for the replacement cost."
In summary, almost no one charges teachers or faculty unless there is a serious
problem with an individual. Many respondents articulated the need to welcome
teachers and avoid "unpleasantness" such as charges. Reminders of check outs are
business as usual, especially when a
request for a checked out item arrives.
Here's the replies. My *Thanks* to all of you who took the time to reply.
We give them a year by resetting the default settings for faculty. I have
never been hard on faculty when they don't return books. If I need it, I go
ask them if I can "borrow" it back. When they lose books, I have not
charged them. It doesn't happen very often, and I like to maintain a good
relationship with the faculty.
+
We go with 6 weeks, unlimited renewals (unless it's on
reserve), no fines.
If not returned, we eat the loss, unless it's a book
for personal reading. We've not had serious problems:
small school, friendly staff.
+
I rarely charge a faculty member for the loss of a book. Only if they repeatedly
abuse the books. I want the faculty to use the books. If they are fearful of
being charged if a kid walks off with a book and they would have to pay for it,
they aren't as apt to use the books. I usually write it off as a walk off. (That
is assuming the faculty member does not make a habit of losing books.)
+
We check out books & videos for just the regular checkout time, but we don't
ask for them back until the end of the year unless someone else needs them.
We send out a list of checked out items in the spring.
Most equipment we check out for the year, unless it's something that we
consider for "daily" use.
I've never charged for lost items. One of the principals I worked for did
charge a teacher for a tape recorder once, and I think the previous media
specialist might have charged teachers for books. We do charge the
students. The teachers have to move around here so much and other people
use their rooms so I can understand how things get lost. We don't have that
many losses, so I feel it's better for goodwill not to charge.
I think this might depend somewhat on your budget. At the current time we
have a "healthy" budget due to our state's funding program, but I know this
is unusual and unfair. I have also worked in a school with absolutely no
media funds except what I raised through book fairs and grants.
+
I'm also on Follet-Circ Plus. I've set my system up to allow faculty an entire
semester with a book. I originally let them have a semester with ALL materials,
then found that I needed the change the policy for videos--so they only get those
for two weeks.
+
Teacher use and their support is so important: it's hard balancing act.
Isn't it?
I allow teachers at my small private school to check out whatever they want
and keep "things" as long as they need them. Spectrum has a way that certain
users can set their own due dates, so I check materials out for a semester
and renew them as needed. I do however notify them when a student needs a
book they have out.
That being said:
I believe (and am not sure) that several teachers see me as a griper when I
remind them of their checkout ONCE at the end of the year. ("I think I
returned that." ...not usually correct because I check the shelves BEFORE I
approach them!)
They don't check out and keep that many things - maybe 40-45 total. If they
kept a lot of materials, I'd have to address the issue.
I HATE that the teachers don't check out a thousand things per year. But
they don't. We have forty teachers and about 800 things are checked out
and/or renewed by them yearly. (Some things are just borrowed and not
checked out, too!)
Some teachers have lost things. I have not ever charged a teacher or a dept
for anything lost; some have offered to pay, some do not.
+
I work in elementary and that would be different regarding departmental policies.
We don't have any departments to which we could charge any costs. Anyway, I use
Follett Destiny and I have always set the teachers' check out for the whole year.
I just changed the ceiling/due dates for my patrons a couple of weeks ago.
Teachers have the same ceiling and due dates, 5/22/2007. I allow faculty to have
whatever they want all year long. Of course if someone else needs it, then we ask,
"Are you finished yet?" It works quite well. Sometimes things get lost within the
room. I keep that item with the original due date on their check out record for 2
years. If it hasn't come back by that time I mark it as lost. No teacher is ever
charged for any materials.
+
I check out to teachers with a ceiling date (in Follett) for the end of each
semester. At the end of each semester, I send e-mails to the teachers asking if
they want to renew until the end of the next semester. Some of them keep equipment
and items checked out constantly that way. However, I also know where everything
is, and it could be retrieved at any time that someone else had need of it.
+
We're pretty generous. We ignore checkout dates for staff, sending an annual
reminder "this is what you have" notice. Consequently some staff members have for
years certain AV items that only they use. Only a small handful abuse this and
almost only with teacher-only type materials. We never charge staff for
items--professional courtesy. I guess it depends on your school-library
environment.
+
I check out items to staff for an academic quarter, and send out notices
about every 6 weeks
reminding them of what they're holding. That way, they can return when
no longer needed.
If it gets to June and they're still holding items, technically I'm
supposed to notify admin. and
have their checks held. I don't do that, but they know it's possible, so
videos MUST come back
and I'll extend their book loans through the summer, if needed.
+
Our faculty can keep material for the full semester. At the end of each
quarter we send out individual memos. "Our records indicate that you
have the following items checked out: " The memo asks that they please
return any items that they are not using.
We recall any item that a faculty member has had for a while if it gets
requested by a student or another faculty member.
This system was in place when I started at the school. If we were
thinking about changing it, I would think that 4 or 6 weeks should be
more than enough time for most material.
We do not charge faculty or departments for lost or damaged items.
+
I set the faculty due date to the end of the school year. That way I only
have to bother them when another person needs the materials. Most of my
staff return their items in less than two weeks, so it is rare that I have
to contact them. I would change this policy if I had teachers who were
irresponsible, or hoarded items.
+
I give them a full semester.
+
I use 4 weeks with as many renewals as they want unless the book it one that kids
are asking for too. Teachers usually tell me if they will need a book longer. I
send overdues when the book is getting to be several weeks late-- sometimes they
forget they still have it. I have never tried to charge a teacher but one did have
money transferred from her account into mine when a volume of a set of encyclopedia
that her kids alone used went missing so that we could buy another set. Most
teachers are good about returning stuff so that hasn't been a problem for me.
+
When I started at my school, teachers got 6 weeks. When I read about
the importance of rotating the books in classrooms (to promote
interest in reading), I changed it to 4 weeks, with an option to
renew. I plan to reduce the time for videos to one week, so that they
will (hopefully) be returned in a more timely fashion--often all of
the teachers at a grade level are teaching the same subject at the
same time. I do checkout of equipment (overhead projectors, listening
centers, calculators, etc.) for the entire school year--the computer
wasn't set up this way when I came, and it leads to constant overdue
warnings, so I'm trying to revise this as I go...
+
I am on Alexandria. Typically I give my teachers whatever time they need.
My default is set for two weeks before school lets out and I do send them a
printout about every 6-8 weeks telling them what they currently have out.
The understanding is that it is a reminder and if they are through with the
materials to bring them back so others can use them. It seems to work
fairly well. Good luck! There is, of course, a different policy on
students.
As to charges for lost books, the teacher has the choice of paying for it
personally or since they were using it to teach with my principal will have
the secretary deduct the amount from that teachers school misc. spending
account.
+
I'm at a high school on Follett, too, and give faculty "till the end of the school
year" since usually they want books that the students don't use. This is also the
checkout for equipment like overheads, TVs w/vcr& dvd players, etc.
About 2 weeks before school's out, I print each staffer a list of what is checked
out to them and ask for verification that they still have the items and still need
them. This does rustle up a few books that staff members were using for a
short-term project and just forgot to return, but most items stay in their
classrooms. As long as I know where an item is and can actually retrieve it if need
be, then I am content.
The idea of transferring 'non-located' items to their department and billing them
has some merit. In particular, one department had checked out a large number of
expensive books from my predecessor and they have not been able to locate them for
the library... I certainly hesitate to replace those subject area books if the same
thing will happen again. We don't have a limit on the number of items that faculty
can check out, but for this one person, I am pretty tempted to ask that "the best 6
books" out of the 20 that we have in total for the subject be all that are checked
out to that classroom. Those poor books seem to be involved in messy student
projects as well. I think that I will suggest to that teacher and the principal
(who is final budget approver) that having the teacher purchase a classroom library
of these expensive large-format books would be the best solution for all parties in
this case.
+
We use the Destiny system from Follett. It's new to us, so I'm not an
expert. I have my teachers' things due on the last day of school.
Click on the Back Office tab.
Click on Library Policies on the left.
I have a Fixed Due Date AND Ceiling Date of May 25, 2007
For the Loan Period, I choose "Fixed."
Last year was my first year as librarian. You feel badly asking
teachers to pay for lost items. I asked other librarians and my
principal. We decided if it was a book they checked out for them and
they lost it, they'd need to pay for it. However, if it was a book that
was part of a reserve cart of books their students used for research,
they didn't have to pay for it.
+
We check out the whole semester. I started cracking down on summer checkouts. Some
teachers swear they are the only one who uses a video or NEED that tape recorder to
stay in their room over the summer. But after losing several items to teachers who
leave during the summer I started collecting everything (unless they need it for
summer school). I reassure them that it will be there in the fall, we just need to
lock it up for security reasons over the summer. Like most schools ours is pretty
open during summer cleaning.
I would love to know if anyone does charge departments. According to my records we
have to go ahead from the board but in my 3 years we haven't done it. We are losing
classes to standardized testing and mobile laptop labs so we don't want to alienate
anyone, but some depts tend to lose more than others.
+
We are a preschool - 8th grade and our teachers can check books out for as long as
they are needed - for the K-5 classes this can be for six to eight weeks, for 6-8
sometimes a whole year. We do harrass them with monthly notices, however. Some
don't bring the books back when the notices arrive if they are still using them,
but it does bring the books to their mind, and they do check to make sure they are
still around. Teachers are responsible for the cost of replacing books they have
lost at the end of the year, so we usually get them back then, if not before. If
someone needs a book that another faculty member has borrowed, I go get it for
them. It all works out.
+
We did not charge fines to our faculty. I felt they needed the materials to preview
and develop their lesson plans based on the resources the library had as well as
have it available during the time they were teaching and using the resources. While
I set the time period to 4 weeks (like the students) I felt it was easy to monitor
the teacher checkouts and "borrow" it from the teacher or encourage them to return
it if they were finished with it. Once I noticed a teacher always wanted to read
aloud a particular chapter in The Long Winter by Wilder when she discussed a
certain period in Social Studies. I was able to find a $1 book of this for her when
I went to a Scholastic Warehouse sale and bought it for her. From then on I didn't
have to ask a student to hurry up and finish this book because a teacher was
requesting to borrow this book for classroom instruction. I think flexibility is
the key. You want the teachers to use the library resources.
+
My system is set to give teachers the same amount of checkout time that the
students have -- 3 weeks. However, I allow them to charge up to 50 books,
well over the limit of 5 that students have. When teachers' books come up
as overdue, I renew them once and mention to the teachers that I have done
that. I continue to renew for as long as they need the books or until
another teacher needs them.
There have been several incidents over the past two years of a single book
not being returned out of a set of perhaps 30 or 40 that different teachers
had borrowed. In one instance, the book was found during the last week of
school. In the other two, the teachers offered to replace the books, but I
preferred to replace them out of the library budget since I didn't want to
punish the teachers for something the students had done.
+
I allow my teachers a month (four weeks of school). At the beginning of each
month, I send a "reminder" with an opportunity for them to renew (unless the
material is requested by another teacher or a student). I include the cost of the
material in all notices. I accept all contributions for lost materials with many
"thank you's", but don't require payment. I find the teachers get upset, as many
times it's a student who has spirited away the book from the cart. I chalk it up
to the cost of doing business. My priority is getting teachers into the library
and using our resources, not discouraging them with fines. It's not perfect,
certainly. I'll be interested to hear what others say.
+
I have a 2 week checkout for teachers, BUT that jut allows me to send them a
reminder notice---not an overdue notice. There is no limit to the number of
reminder notices I send, and I do not ask for the item to be returned until someone
else needs it OR it is the end of the year!
Teachers very seldom lose items so I have never charged teachers for items not
returned. If a teacher lost a new book or a very expensive item, I would certainly
consider a charge. That has just never happened.
Tim Wojcik, librarian & media specialist
Our Lady of Mercy CHS
Fairburn, GA
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