Kelly this is what I do. This library serves K3-12th grade and a Bible Institute.
Two years ago I stopped charging overdue fines. In my over 30 years of experience
it truly did not work. And at $.10 a day it wasn't worth my time. The only
exception was at university where I worked and with the reserve collection. Where
they charged $.50 an hour.
But here I love the no fines. I still generate 3 notices, the third one is sent to
the parents telling them that they have one week from the date on the notice to
return the materials. It also says that two previous notices were sent out and
your child did not respond. If not returned by that date then I declare the
item(s) as lost and put the charge on the school bill. This rule also apply's to
the faculty and staff as well. It works really well. Usually the parents can
rattle the cage of the child better than me.
At the end of school is the only time I don't send out notices except for one on
the wednesday before all things are due on Friday of that week. That says they need
to return all library materials by a certain date. After that the item(s) will be
declared lost and I send a charge to the billing office. They will hold report
cards, awards, transcripts and diplomas until it is cleared. I have only had a few
really irate parents. My principal will stand behind me and support me. So that
helps alot as well.
I know as a private school we are different than a public school. But I think you
could withhold diploma's, report cards, awards until they have cleared their
accounts with the library.
Robert L. Shuck, Librarian
Lang Memorial Library
Harvest Christian Academy
Barrigada, GU 96921
www.hcaguam.net
Ph: 671-477-6341 ext 229
FAX 671-477-7136
________________________________
From: School Library Media & Network Communications on behalf of Pamela Roberts
Sent: Fri 5/2/2008 1:17 AM
To: LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: Re: Subject: Overdues....how many is too many?
Kelly, although I am a high school librarian, I understand your
frustration with overdues.
I was reading an older thread about late fines just last night
and it's an issue that I am
interested in. How do we get our books back on time - or at all
without wasting too
much precious time chasing after our students, sometimes even long
after they've left
our school! At our school we tell the students we charge 10 cents a
day, but when they
bring us the book we only charge them half but we still have an
incredible amount of
books overdue each week. I found it interesting in my research that
one librarian stopped
charging late fines altogether and didn't see any difference in the
number of late books.
This leads me to wonder if I could save some time and grief haranging
students for
money owed and be able to focus on other services we provide in the
library.
One idea that was suggested was to have a weekly draw -
students would fill out a ballot
when they signed out a book and if their name was drawn they would
win the prize on the
condition that they had no lates or fines on their record. I like
the idea of thinking of
incentives rather than punishments for returning books. If anyone
has any other positive
ways to get their books back, I'd love to hear about them. Just an
aside, when I was living
in Japan, I brought my books back late and expected to pay a late
charge - they didn't know
what I was talking about, they don't charge fines at the public
library! I'd be interested in
finding out their return rates! (They would probably put us to shame!)
Cheers,
Pamela Roberts Griffith, Teacher and Librarian
Rosedale Heights SA, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Pamelarob@Hotmail.com
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