Re: [LM_NET] When do you stop checkout?

[Teresa Schauer <pettushs@GMAIL.COM>]

Before this thread goes haywire with everyone's feelings getting hurt, I
think we should all pause, take a breath and think about our own personal
situation.  It's the end of the year and emotions are running high...

I don't think Tony's intent was to pass judgement.  Maybe if he had
expressed it in a way that spoke of how *he feels fortunate* for *being able
* to work in a situation where he can continue checkouts it would not have
pushed emotional buttons or come as a personal affront to anyone.

For me, I was glad to read Tony's post and to read replies from people who
felt the same as he.  I have never wanted to admit that I check out books
till the very end, or that I let kids take books over the summer.  Heck, I
have kids who graduated years ago who can't WAIT for summer so they can
borrow our library books. Each year when the listserv would start popping
with people discussing the need to close early I would cringe.  I thought
that I was a "bad librarian" for being so carefree with my
collection. Reading Tony's post made me feel better.

I have never charged fines.  If a kid keeps a book for a long time, as long
as no one else is looking for it, or I don't need it, I don't freak out that
it's late--if someone wants it, I find the kid and get it back.   When new
books come in the first thing I do is run to find kids in their classes to
hand deliver the books they're waiting for---and many times new books make
the rounds of eight or nine kids before I even get them entered into my
catalog.  I do "stop" checkouts a week before the last day, but the kids who
read a lot continue to take books while I begin to organize the shelves.  Do
I lose a lot of books?  Honestly, no...I don't.  BUT.....

I am the librarian for a small, rural school library that serves grades
6-12.  I am fortunate that I taught most of the high school kids in third
and fourth grade before I became their librarian.  Our campus of 250 or so
kids is more like a family compound....and my library is sort of like the
living room.  *I realize how blessed I am to have this situation--I count
that at the top of my blessings each and every day*!

Having said that, I am also in charge or our elementary collection that
serves 165 K-5th graders, and we DO close that one down two weeks prior, and
spend the following week checking in all the books that are out.  If there
are older kids who want to check out chapter books, we allow it--but they
have to sign a note---I TOTALLY agree with not allowing young kids, or kids
with no family support to take books over the summer.  Now, If a parent
genuninely wanted to work with their child and requested to check out a pile
of books, I definitely would--but I think that's on a case by case basis.

I do think, that as librarians we might sometimes feel that we MUST be rigid
in our rules and structure---I know that I have always felt a little
rebellious for not being more rigid.  For me, Tony's post was liberating.


I hope everyone has a blessed and wonderful end of school and summer!


Just my two cents,

Teresa

On Tue, May 18, 2010 at 7:23 AM, Amanda Clark <aclark@beth.k12.pa.us> wrote:

> I would like to reply to the rant about check-out.  I work in an urban
> school with the poverty-stricken children mentioned and yes, I stop
> check-out 3 weeks before the end of school.  My district has faced lack of
> budgets for libraries and I have lost too many books to count due to
> transient students.  Why should I risk losing more books over the summer? If
> we're being faced with budget cuts how can we afford to lose books?  What is
> there for children to read if there are no books on the shelf?  Children who
> want to read can still go to the public library over the summer.  Does Mr.
> Doyle work in an urban, poverty-stricken area?  If not, then perhaps he
> should not judge.  Does he check out books all summer? Maybe the situation
> would be different in a high school, but how can I expect a first grader to
> remember a book that he took out 8 weeks over the summer when he cannot find
> his book from the beginning of the school year?  I could not help but take
> his rant personally.
>
> Amanda Hahn
> Librarian
> Fountain Hill Elementary School
> aclark@beth.k12.pa.us
>
>
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> On May 18, 2010, at 3:00 AM, LM_NET automatic digest system wrote:
>
> There are 2 messages totalling 137 lines in this issue.
>>
>> Topics of the day:
>>
>>  1. Holding mail
>>  2. Gen: When do you stop check-out?
>>
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>> Date:    Mon, 17 May 2010 20:37:45 -0400
>> From:    Hope Betz <hbetz@SYMPATICO.CA>
>> Subject: Holding mail
>>
>> Please suspend all mail until further notice
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>> ------------------------------
>>
>> Date:    Mon, 17 May 2010 21:38:45 -0700
>> From:    Anthony Doyle <lhslibrarian@GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject: Re: Gen: When do you stop check-out?
>>
>> I am ready to be flamed but I have to say I am just a little disturbed
>> reading responses to this query. No checkouts for the last 1, 2, 3, or
>> 4 weeks of school?!  So no reading during that time either?  So in
>> addition to the 8 to 10 weeks of no reading during the summer we are
>> going to tack on some more time?  For children living in poverty this
>> lack of reading is deadly. Shouldn't we be fighting this?  Too busy at
>> the end of the year and worried about getting every book back seem
>> like weak excuses to me.
>>
>> Be a radical librarian. Check out books ALL year-- even if your busy.
>> Let kids take books for the summer with only one limit, "how many can
>> you carry?" Risk losing a few books in the name of literacy. Fight
>> your own impulses to say no.
>>
>> OK, rant over.
>>
>> Tony
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>> Tony Doyle, Teacher Librarian
>> Livingston High School
>> Livingston, CA
>> lhslibrarian@gmail.com
>>
>> On May 9, 2010, at 10:45 AM, Charna Gross <charna51@HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:
>>
>> Just wanted to find out when you typically stop checking out books
>>> at the end of the school year.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> My school gets out on May 28th this year and I plan to stop checking
>>> out at the end of this week on May 14th, thus two weeks before the
>>> end of the school year. Books are checked out for one week.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> What do the rest of you do?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Janet Gross
>>>
>>> School Librarian
>>>
>>> Corlears School
>>>
>>> New York, New York
>>>
>>> charna51@hotmail.com
>>>
>>>
>>>
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-- 
Teresa Schauer
District Librarian/Pettus ISD
Pettus, Texas
tschauer@pettusisd.esc2.net

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