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Thanks to everyone who responded. My orginal post: I was curious as to the policy in other media centers regarding the use of reference books. Our students cannot take reference books out of the library into classrooms for use and definitely cannot check them out to take home. There are students who do not have access to computers at home let alone encyclopedias or dictionaries. Some of these students do not have transportation to public libraries to use these resources outside of school. I would like to know what other libraries' policies are regarding this issue. Beth Buttner Student Librarian Matoaka Elementary Williamsburg, VA buttnerb@wjcc.k12.va.us Here are the responses that I received: I was glad to see this post - I had something come up recently where I was > doing an Almanac lesson and the kids were really interested in taking out > the kids almanacs. I have 30 copies. Once my lesson is done, those > almanacs don't see a lot of use. I don't have a problem letting some of > them circulate, but my aides were shocked at the idea. They said they don't > ever go out. I thought it was great that the kids wanted to take them out > (versus the Guiness Book of World Records). I think I will make a few of > them circulating since there was an interest. ___________________________________________________________________________________________ I think the prohibition on checking out reference books and magazines goes back to public library policies that do not apply to school libraries. A public library cannot allow reference books and magazines to go out the door because they never know when or if they will ever see those folks again. However, in a school, we know where we can find our patrons anyday and everyday. I've been checking out reference books and magazines for a decade now. Reference books are still technically a one-day check out, but I usually ask the patron (student) how long he or she needs it, and then I adjust the date for him. Please give it a try. You can always go back to restrictions if you need to, but I can't imagine that you will. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ At my elem facility, we've purchased class sets (25 copies) each of atlases, dictionaries, and thesauri and we let them all go out like a regular books. We did this b/c we also have a digital divide problem in our region and also because teachers do like to borrow them in bunches when they do class projects (ie our grade 3 map skills unit). Incidentally, our students really love to take atlases out. We use the National Geographic for Young Explorers and for Beginners atlases, which are on the inexpensive side in case one gets lost. At both my elem and high school facilities, we let regular reference books (such as volumes of the encyclopedia or single title works like the Cold War Encyclopedia) go out overnight/for the weekend/over holiday breaks for projects, with the understanding that the student can't check it out until the end of the day and that they will return the book during homeroom or as soon as they arrive back at school. We warn students about the purchase price of the reference book and tell them that they'll get a bill if it's not back. We have not had any problems thus far with getting these items back later than an hour after school starts for the day. Within the building, teachers can borrow reference books on a day-by-day basis, and students can come borrow reference materials for one class period/study hall at a time. We move old reference (last year's almanac, older version of atlas, etc) into normal circulation once we purchase the newest version. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ I allow checkout by teachers and students for use in the classrooms. I also will photocopy sections of a reference book for students. I do ask the students not to bring expensive reference books home for fear something could happen to the book at home and the student(and library) will be unable to pay to replace it. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ We have overnight checkout for reference books. We will allow them to go out to students to use in their classroom during the day also. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ I allow my children to check out reference books. In 30+ years, I think one volume of an ency has been lost. I'll admit my reference section gets very little use so I hate to see all that money just sitting on the shelves. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ This is something I have been thinking about for several years. With the Internet resources we have available at school I just don't see the need for my schools to have all these expensive and rarely used resources collecting dust on the shelves.We luckily have World Book online and other great reference resources on the Internet and I will print articles for children who do not have Internet at home. So this year, I am turning most of my reference books into regular circulating items. My students are having great fun reading our animal encyclopedias and especially the big foreign language dictionaries. I'm using the shelf space for other items now. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ I check them out. I also ILL them if they're not in use at the moment for a project. I can't stand to look at expensive useful books sit on shelves when someone needs them, remembering all the years I needed them and couldn't take them out! Make your own loan policy, but yes, get them into needy hands. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I have merged my non-fiction and the vast majority of reference to make it easier to find all the books we own on a topic in one place. The automation system knows which ones are reference books and we have them clearly marked. We DO loan the book overnight. We let the kids know that they are for overnight only and that they are quite expensive - averaging about $75. They are good about bringing the books back in. Sometimes not the next day - but often withing a few days. We have a very small section with a set of World book and some atlases that we refer to as quick reference. We don't sign those out - but offer to copy the articles they need. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ After carefully observing the lack of use of our reference section (we have wonderful databases available to teachers and students) I started letting kids check out reference books the middle of last year. The kids love the books!!! Plus, we haven't lost one yet and the books, encyclopedias, and dictionaries are actually being used instead of just sitting there collecting dust. I'm all for it. We have the same problems as you mentioned with access to the public library and other informational sources as many of our families are not native English speakers. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ We do not allow reference to be checked out but have severely limited the books in reference to those that cant go elsewhere, such as encyclopedia sets, multi-volume sets, or local history books which are one of a kind. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ EVERYTHING in my library can be checked out! I discovered early on that kids will find a way to get what they need and if yo say they CAN'T. they will do things that are not acceptable (steal, take a razor blade to the page they need, etc...) My reference books can be taken out overnight only. IF they are checked out, at least I know who has it -- the other way it's anyone's guess. I also have a coin-op copy machine in the library so that kids can make copies of pages if they cannot for other reasons check things out. Since instituting this change I thinks I've only lost 3-5 reference books. That was 15 years ago. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ We do not have a Reference Section. Reference books are in the regular collection and are checked out for two weeks. It works for us. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I check out reference materials over night. The kids are pretty darn good about bringing things back the next day. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The way you describe your students is a mirror to mine. I allow my students to check them out the same as any other book. But they aren't checked out because they are necessarily doing research - they just have an interest. If I didn't allow them to be checked out the Ref section would go untouched. It's difficult to tell a child 'no' when you don't have a good reason. I have one teacher who checks out a complete set of Encyclopedias every year and her students love them. I can see why. As a child I can remember having the World Book and Childcraft at home and pouring over them constantly. In fact, I still have my Childcraft set. At school nobody misses the set or evens realizes they are gone. Ultimately, you will do what is best for your kiddos. I think you already know the answer. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ All of my reference books, including encyclopedias and dictionaries are available to check out overnight. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ We allow students to check out any and all reference books. I started allowing this about 20 years ago and have lost one almanac and three encyclopedias. None of them were paid for, as sometimes happens. I continue with the policy because the benefit for the patrons is well worth the cost. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I used to protect the very expensive reference books, and students could only make copies of pages to take home. At this point, if anyone actually wanted to take a book out, I would allow them to because I would not even care if they lost it. Our reference section is becoming obsolete, and I am not ordering new. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I circulate everything. The reference stuff is a little more restricted than regular books. I will check with the teacher to make sure the student is reliable (we have a very big problem with kids not bringing back books). Depending on the book/student I will also impose a time limit..usually 3-5 days instead of 2 weeks. I also don't circulate any reference books that are really big or really heavy (such as atlases and "big" dictionaries). Too many problems. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ As a public library, we have relaxed our entire reference area. What's the point of having public access if it's all limited? We are making most books available for everyone to check out... -------------------------------------------------------------------- Please note: All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law. You can prevent most e-mail filters from deleting LM_NET postings by adding LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU to your e-mail address book. To change your LM_NET status, you send a message 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 * LM_NET Help & Information: http://lmnet.wordpress.com/ * LM_NET Archive: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/archive/ * EL-Announce with LM_NET Select: http://lm-net.info/join.html * LM_NET Supporters: http://lmnet.wordpress.com/category/links/el-announce/ --------------------------------------------------------------------