It can be too easy in this age of automated library systems that the computer will look after reminding students to return overdue loans via an email to their email accounts.
Sometimes a student won't look at them, focusing on other more important emails in their inbox. There is only school where I have across where students respond back to library staff about an overdue loan.
There is also the printed reminders forwarded through roll call classes. But sometimes, they forget to be distributed amongst other notices and the routine of roll call itself.
But what about face to face?
I find face to face reminders to be most effective at getting serial offenders to return their library books. It does take away some of your time, but if you want to get the books back, a verbal reminder wont hurt them.
At one school, a member of the library team will visit classrooms to speak to students. I have been part of it myself. Fifty percent of the time, the students will realise it was in their locker and immediately return the book. Others will go home, find it and bring it back.
I picked up last year at a school, where students were only receiving email reminders. I introduced printed overdue notices and would have the notices distributed by the Year Advisors.
Now in 2017, I have adopted the face to face reminders focusing on the serial offenders. I sent notes to students to report to the library and I reminded them of overdue items. We've managed to get a good chunk of the overdue items back including the longest overdues. The message had sunk in. Bookshelves and bedrooms were searched with books found. There was the odd one stuck in a locker.
