Very well said.? Thanks Shonda. The point near the the end about passing the
problem up the line is right on.? Please don't flame me, but it makes me wonder if
high schools held students to a higher standard it would help everyone--including
public and academic libraries. I think high school administrators are the people
who really need to hear this.? I'm talking to the choir in this group.
I was going to stay out of this discussion, although it has been very interesting.?
I just want to briefly share one of our best stories at my current library.
A graduate student checked out 5-6 books, never brought them back, so eventually
he/she was billed for replacement at the business office--and the bill sat there
until graduation time, when he couldn't graduate without paying.? He came back to
the library one final time swearing up-and-down that the books were returned.? Our
staff person didn't budge.? A few days later a different person came in, and
unceremoniously dumped the books on the circ desk, turned on his heel and walked
out.? I don't remember exactly how we learned the rest of this, but it turned out
that the person who had checked out the books was working on a group project at the
time and had given the books to another person in the group, who had never returned
them.? The books had evidently been stacked in a lazy kind of stack because you
could see dust on the covers in odd patterns and had coffee rings where coffee cups
had sat.? They were quite a sight! ?It had been so long since the saga started that
we had!
removed the items from the catalog, and then had to decide if we wanted to put
them back in the collection.
The stories we'll have in old age!?
Thanks for reading,
Donna
Donna Nix
Plymouth, MN
dgillila@aol.com ?
University of St. Thomas
Minneapolis, MN
denix@stthomas.edu
www.stthomas.edu/libraries
www.mnbatt.blogspot.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Shonda Brisco <sbrisco@GMAIL.COM>
To: LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Sent: Wed, 20 May 2009 8:02 am
Subject: Re: [LM_NET] smoked
The issue of "lost" or "missing" books isn't just a K-12 issue, as many of
you realize. Many of the students in your schools who fail to return their
books or complain that they "didn't check them out," grow up to be college
students (and even older adults) who seem to replay the same excuse when
they visit the academic library!!
While there ARE some books that are returned and aren't correctly checked in
by our student workers, the majority of lost or missing books are just never
returned by lazy or scatter-brained library patrons. Generally the bursar's
bill is the biggest prompt to get them to return them to us (the
students are charged the cost of the book plus a $20 processing fee--- even
if they return the book and are refunded the replacement cost, we still
charge the processing fee ----which can be painful!!)
One student recently began returning about 40 overdue books from last
semester when she received a bursar's bill for over $900. When she returned
the books, she still had a balance of over $400 (which I reduced). However,
when I searched her "history" of library usage, I discovered that she had
borrowed over 200 books during the past year and had "lost" or had overdue
fines for 117 of them.
You have to wonder how long these individuals were allowed to get away
with not taking responsibility for their library privileges as children or
young adults?
I don't advocate being a "library meanie"...but I DO hope that school
librarians (and administrators) continue to require their students to take
responsibility for the library materials that they borrow and / or pay for
their lost materials. The trend of irresponsible behavior by students will
continue throughout college and adulthood if we do not address this problem
at the K-12 levels.
Keep up the good work and know that we are also trying to *teach (and
reteach) social responsibility* even at the academic levels.
~Shonda
--
Shonda Brisco
Assistant Professor / Curriculum Materials Librarian
Mary L. Williams Curriculum Materials Library
001
Willard Hall
Oklahoma State University
Stillwater, OK 74078
http://www.library.okstate.edu/cml/index.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://osulibrarian.wordpress.com/
http://www.osu-cml.wikispaces.com
sbrisco@gmail.com
http://okschoollibrarians.wikispaces.com
http://okschoollibrarians.ning.com/
"Digital Resources" columnist
School Library Journal
"Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get
you through times of no libraries." ~ Library Poster
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