It would be great if high schools were able to hold our students
accountable, but sadly, we cannot. I used to be able to give my
administrators a list for "hold credit" but that is no longer possible.
We are allowed to try to retrieve materials with overdue notices,
telephone calls and letters, but in the end, if the student and/or
parent ignore us, the student graduates anyways.
Barbara Kane
High School Library Media Specialist
Southwestern Central School
Jamestown, NY 14701
-----Original Message-----
From: School Library Media & Network Communications
[mailto:LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On Behalf Of Donna Nix
Sent: Wednesday, May 20, 2009 11:01 AM
To: LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: Re: [LM_NET] smoked
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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