Re: [LM_NET] Hit: Overdues - There must be a better way, Part 1

[Janice Davies <jgdavies2004@YAHOO.COM>]

  Thank you, everyone who sent me suggestions to improve my overdue/fine collection 
process.  
   
  Jan Davies, Library Media Specialist
  Laurel High School, Laurel, Md.
  jgdavies2004@yahoo.com
   
  My original message:
   

Two weeks ago I went through getting the books/fines taken care of 

with the seniors, and now I am dealing with the underclassmen. With three 

days of school remaining, we currently have 116 students who still owe 

books and about that many that owe fines.

   

  Getting students to take care of their obligations is time consuming 

process at my school and I am hoping to find a more efficient way

 to do 

this.

   

  I work in a high school library with about 2,000 students. Overdue 

fees are 10 cents a day. I put an upper limit on fines of $3 per book per 

semester and add on $3 for books that aren't returned by the

 end of the 

school year to prevent students dropping their books off mid-summer 

without paying fines.

   

  We put in holds on the records of students who have not taken care of 

their obligations. Parents will probably not

 be aware that their 

students have outstanding obligations till next week when they get a notice 

of obligation instead of their childrens' report cards. 

   

  I try to send out notices in advance to let students know that they 

are having a hold put on their records so they have time to take care of 

them before the end of the school year. We make copies of these 

notices, enter the holds in the county mainframe computer (which is how the 

central office is told not to send a report card) then we file the copy 

in our Hold Book.

   

  Some students bring back their books and drop them in the drop box so 

there are likely to be a lot of holds on books  that need to be 

cleared, but unless students bring them to us and pay their fines, we often 

don't know to change it from a hold on a book to a hold on a

 fine.

   

  The other thing I have problems with is that it's hard to avoid 

putting in more than one hold for the same fine. When I run overdue notices 

(We use Accent by Sagebrush) we can select the dates that the books 

were due, and in that way we avoid putting holds in the same book twice, 

but I can't figure out how to avoid doing that with fines. When I print 

out the fine list in June, it gives me students who acrued those fines 

in October and there's not a way for me to tell the difference, other 

than to go through the hold book manually and take out the ones that are 

already in there.

   

  I would like to be able to go through a printout of the county 

mainframe computer database and check against my circulation computer 

database for errors, but I can't do that because only one secretary in the 

school has the ability to print from the central office database and she 

refuses to do it except at the end of the year. This makes me nervous 

because we do make mistakes and that means irate parents coming in.

   

  This past week I realized that we would not be able to

 print out the 

hold notices in time to distribute them to the students before they 

leave for the summer. Even though the last day of school is this Friday, 

many students finish their exams by Tuesday and many don't come for the 

last three days. 

   

  I decided to post a list of the students (a 34 page printout) with 

their obligations in the main lobby in the hope that students will have 

fair warning before the end of the year.

   

  If you have a smoother, more efficient, less stressful way of dealing 

with overdues, I'd appreciate it if you'd share it and I will post a 

hit. 

   
   
  Kathi -
   
  I am in a high school and do overdues via our phone master.  I call Freshman on 
Monday nites, sophomores on Tuesday, etc.  It works great because the phone calls 
drive the parents crazy.  the students will tell me that and I say "great" - that's 
what we want to happen.  
   
  Amanda -
  I am also working in a secondary school library but with fewer students (1500). 
When I first arrived there were many overdue books some as far back as the previous 
year. Our school does not give fines. We run an overdue list and personal reminders 
once a week. Once a student has had three reminders (in other words their book is 
now more than three weeks overdue) I am given the name and follow this up by 
visiting him or her during class time. Surprisingly the student often has the book 
in his or her bag. This personal reminder works for 80% of students. For the 
remaining few I phone home (usually on two phones call every month). If those 
approaches fail to work then the student receives a punishment from Senior 
Management. So far no students have reached that level this year. At the end of 
last year using this method we only had three books overdue from students (six from 
staff). I find the personal approach is very effective. We now have students coming 
to us to explain
 they have lost books and are willing to pay for the replacement. I take one hour a 
week on this system and consider it worthwhile as nothing banks up beyond a term.
  Becky -
  I have 1800 students, school is out June 13 and I have over 1000 books overdue 
right now—just like every year!  Think about your process—if your policies are 
costing you lots of time, maybe streamline them.  Don’t charge the extra fee at the 
end or the $3 per semester ?  What I do is charge 10 cents per school day up to a 
max of $2, then at the end of the year, I run a long list and if a kid has fines 
less than $4 and no books out, I delete the rest of the fines with the thought that 
they did pretty darn good and the staff time it saves to not bill for less than $4 
is worth it!  So, with a much shorter list, I send notices and yes many students 
still keep their books out but some come back or get paid for in the summer and in 
the following fall.  My aide helps the bookkeeper put the fines on the district 
system after the kids leave and it doesn’t take too long—a few hours.  The 
bookkeeper then sends accurate bills out over the summer.  All year I tell kids to 
pay down
 their fines to under $3 and the rest will go away (I tell them $3 but I actually 
use $4 as the cutoff.)  Our seniors can’t walk in graduation until all fees are 
paid so sometimes I don’t get fines paid till senior year but I eventually get most 
of them.  Put lots of signs around school and on the announcements towards the end 
of the year.  If your teachers agree, you could also send your aides to pick up 
books in classrooms if the students have them with them—that has actually worked 
for me when I have had time to do it.  We also make phone calls to all the students 
who have expensive books or a lot of books still out in June and that has been very 
effective for us.
  Melissa -

The week before school was out, I sent the attached letter (actually

 

got

this from LM-NET this year) with a fine/overdue notice home to parents.

One student I put into a non-school envelope as it would not have

actually gotten to the parent otherwise.  This year was the first year 

I

did not submit two pages of names to the office.  I only had 4 students

left by the end of our last day!

 

I have hear from someone, that the school will not allow students to

purchase Prom/homecoming tickets until a fine is paid.  You might try

contacting administration or the group sponsoring an event to try this;

it would be a great mid-year collection.
   
  Note from the HS IMC:
  June 1, 2006
   
  As the school year winds down, we would like to thank the parents and guardians 
of the students who we've served all school-year long.
   
  The next school year will be here before we know it.  In the meantime, take this 
time to share the value of reading with your children and know that we will be 
circulating library books again in September.
   
  As we take the summer off, take this time to continually promote reading in your 
home, and we thank you for encouraging your student to read and imagine.  Education 
research shows that continual reading creates imagination in the minds of children, 
increases vocabulary and reading comprehension, which increases scholastic test 
scores because scholastic tests are based on reading comprehension.
   
  Truly, ours is a service where books only have their greatest influence when 
parents and guardians are involved, encouraging the habit of reading to continue.  
Remember that reading is not limited to just books, but also magazines, newspapers, 
etc.  Any time your child is reading, he/she is gaining more vocabulary and fluency.
   
  If a sheet is attached to this letter, it lists the library items that your child 
may still need to take care of before the end of the year.  Report cards will be 
withheld in the office until these and any other fines are paid.  Please assist 
your child to meet his/her responsibility. 
   
  Thank you again for all you do as a parent/guardian.
   
  Sincerely,
   
   
   
  Ms. Melissa Eggen
  7-12 Library Media Specialist
   
   
  Harry -

We suspended computer accounts for students with overdue books. I

 got

100% return this year. Kids notice right away when they cannot log on.

 

How to get your principal on board? Show your overdue list with book

values highlighted and tallied.
   
   
  Jaime -

If you have a cap on your fines, the students have no motivation to

return the materials.  If a kid has a $3 fine in October, what is going

to motivate them to get the stuff back before the end of the year?

Well, NOTHING!  

 

When I came to this school last year, there was a $5 cap.  I have over

350 books out that have been due since October.  They don't care, the

fine is already at it's max. 

 

 

Next year I am going to abolish the fine cap.  At the beginning of the

year I am going to make book marks with that information and every book

that gets checked out is going to get one so they can't stand there at

the end of the year and say, I didn't know.  

 

When I have told students that is going to be the way next year they 

all

make faces and think that's bad.  And I tell them, that's why.  I want

you to care enough to get the books back

 to us. 

 

I also hold an amnesty day each semester, and I have a canned food 

drive

where they can exchange .50 of their fine for each can of food they

bring in.  

 
  Sadie -
  It seems as if you're doing everything possible to let the kids know of their 
obligations. This sounds very similar to the process we go thru here, though 
usually the students attend the last three days because we give finals and 
culminating activities. 
  My thinking is that, at high school age, kids are to be held responsible. All of 
that turning in over the summer thing? Fine. When I get back in the fall, after I 
do prep for beginning the school year, then I take care of late books, inform the 
bookkeeper, and if the kids (and their guardians) are interested in their grade 
reports, they'll get them at my convenience. Just my $.02.
   
  Gayle -

This doesn't really address your request but our students couldn't

purchase prom tickets this year until they were clear with the library. 

A

lot of books were returned that I hadn't seen since September or 

October,

especially from Seniors. Our students and parents are able to check 

grades

anytime on Classroll.com so holding semester grades doesn't work

 
  anymore.
   
  Debbie -
  Sounds like the end of the year - all those wonderful readers that don't remember 
to return books!  This year was one of the best years I've ever had - so, when I 
saw your request, I thought I'd share with you.
   
  The first thing - It may sound drastic, but get rid of the fines.  I stopped 
charging fines three years ago  when they cut my assistant and I wish I'd have done 
it sooner.  We were finding kids that didn't return books because they didn't have 
the fine money... and no matter how much I tried to tell them the fine stopped when 
they brought in the book, they would hold those books in their lockers and the 
custodians would find them at the end of the year.  We held report cards for fines 
over $1 and any outstanding books.  It was a paper nightmare - if one person forgot 
to record a $1.25 payment the report card and edline access were held hostage.  
Once I stopped fines, we had relative peace with only the actual books requiring 
return before report cards or edline access were returned.  Students are using more 
books and renewing them more readily when I tell them "I don't want your money, 
it's my job to keep track of the books and I don't want them to be lost - now if I 
got
 to keep the money for a trip to Tahiti...."  
   
  Secondly, Restrict overdue notices to once at the end of each quarter.  If your 
staff is anything like mine, they are awesome people who have a TON of extra 
paperwork.  By restricting the number of times I ask them for help, they realize 
the importance and bug the kids - besides, at the end of the term they know the 
kids really well and know how to get on them.  At the end of the year I send out a 
list of just student names to all the teachers and ask them to bug any of their 
kids who have books out - so now the kids are getting reminded at least five times 
a day... it's three days after the last day of school and I only have eighteen 
students who have materials out.
   
  Third - Thank your staff for helping you out.  This year as a thank you to staff 
I bought 400 pens from Ebay (for $14.76) and at a staff meeting invited them to 
take their pick of pens as a thank you from the library for all their help chasing 
books during the year.  At the start of this year I let them pick out scissors 
(also from Ebay) that had been confiscated at airports (Don't let a good scissors 
go bad...)  They loved it. 
   
  My fourth step is in progress - I am not holding report cards for anything.  
Today I am going to make personal phone calls to each of the students homes and let 
the parent know that they have library materials out.  Next year the students' 
checkout will be denied until they return or pay for the book - this way I am only 
"out" one book.  The administration has agreed to hold the student responsible for 
the return of the book or payment for the book before they can walk across the 
stage for graduation.  This way the only one handling all the returns and etc. is 
me - no more checking and rechecking, no more irate parent phone calls, the 
responsibility is on the student.
   
  I am hoping this works - so far it's been much simpler and the number of returns 
is amazing once the kids realized I wasn't holding report cards. The little crew 
that had decided to delay their report cards all trooped in and returned their 
books just to "stop all my teachers from nagging me..."  I know this may sound 
drastic, but I figure my time is worth a lot more than chasing a kid for a $1 fine 
or a $3 paperback.
   
    
  Jan Davies, Library Media Specialist
  
  Laurel High School, Laurel, Md.
  jgdavies2004@yahoo.com
   
  

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