Dealing with Overdue and Lost Library Books in schools

A big part of our work as Teacher Librarians, librarians or assistants is following up on overdue library loans.

I was motivated to do this post after a Teacher Librarian wanted some guidance in how to address the issue in their school.

The idea of a book bond had been suggested, but I really think this idea wouldn't work and I have not come across a school yet to do it. 

In how I would approach the issue, this is how I would do it and I'll share what I mentioned with them but I do elaborate a little further on the content here:

1. Print the overdue notices as students from my experience have actually taken more notice if its on paper and someone reminds them. The emailed notices from experience tend to be ignored but don't scrap it altogether. Sometimes a student may simply forget that they have borrowed the book in the first place i.e. placed in locker. 

2. Pick a day of the week to run them off. It can be weekly or fortnightly.

3. Distribute them either via roll call classes or as I have done in one school, in their fortnightly year meetings. Year advisors/house masters/tutors etc will support you and keeps them in the loop too.

4. If overdues are a big problem within the school (one school I filled in at had 40% of students with overdue items), don't be afraid to draft up a letter (template can be requested via contacting me) for the student to take home to their parents. Can be used for the end of the year when finalising the return of all items.

If a student has an overdue item, standard practice has been to not permit any loans until the items are returned. This would push students to return the book/s. In public libraries, if your book is overdue, you will not be allowed to borrow or renew the items until all items are returned. Part of our role is preparing kids for the real world, and instilling these habits will help them when dealing with public libraries

Item Lost or Missing?

When a student loses the item, charge the student for a replacement. As part of the cataloguing process on systems like OLIVER for a new item, the purchase price of the item is entered into the system. In some schools, the student can go and purchase the replacement and hand it over to the library. In OLIVER for instance, you would report the lost item as missing.

And if a student is signing out, do not sign them off until they have either returned the item or paid the cost/s of replacing the item/s.

I forgot to mention this in my communication with the Teacher Librarian concerned, but is useful.

If a book is lost or missing, treat it as if it were overdue and suspend their borrowing privileges until the fee is paid.

Sometimes a student who loses an item might eventually find the item say six months later. If found, I would suggest providing a refund to the student as the item has been found and can be added back into the circulation system. However this would be more complex should the missing item have been weeded from the circulation as missing items might be automatically weeded after a set period. 

I have heard murmurs that one school here in Sydney will also charge an administration fee for processing lost items? I think that takes things a little too far as I feel just the replacement cost for the book is enough.  

Will need to research it a little further. 

Online Dewey System Games & Genre Quiz

I am doing some RFF (Relief from Face to Face Teaching) work at a primary school in Wollongong this term. It is giving me an opportunity to gain some insights into current library programs in primary schools but hopefully give me some insights into what I might need to focus on with library skills at a secondary level.

I have had the chance to take some Year 5/6 library lessons and they have been focusing on the online game - Order in the Library where they can practice skills in how to shelve books and identify where a book might be located. I decided to find some related online games and came across these.

These games could be used for stage 4 (Year 7 and 8) library lessons as well.

Dewey Decimal System (Flashcard Game)
https://www.quia.com/fc/7265.html

Basic Dewey Decimal
https://www.quia.com/cm/13837.html?AP_rand=1778967173 

Genres of Literature
https://www.quia.com/fc/382369.html  

Dewey Decimal Fun
https://www.quia.com/cb/415196.html

Closing the year off

We have reached the end of another year.

The Copyright for Educators course is now complete and have received my certificate. I would highly recommend it to any teacher (not just those in libraries) because it will assist you in how you can use resources for your teaching.

But also students can be educated on the appropriate use of resources in communicating information along with the legal implications i.e. plagiarism.

One thing I had learnt at the end of the course was how strict Australia is compared to the rest of the world, yet other nations acknowledge that sometimes we need to access other people's ideas in order to create new information.

Obviously its on the condition that we give credit to the original creator of the information.

Availabilty for 2017

For schools in need of a Teacher Librarian, I am still available to work. Please click here to find out details relating to availability.

I am also seeking unpaid work for 2017 to keep skills and experience up to date.

I wish all of you a very merry Christmas and a successful 2017.

Copyright for Educators - What I've learned so far

I have decided to enrol in the Copyright for Educators course to broaden my knowledge of Copyright particularly in a legal and educational context.

I am hoping it will guide me in teaching academic integrity to students, particularly as a student may not be aware that they are breaching copyright.

I have been interested so far with the overview of copyright and who owns material.

Several weeks in, I have been amazed at the regulations associated with using material for educational purposes. I have to admit that are all guilty of some sort of copyright breach on a regular basis, and most of it, we wouldn't even notice.

So were actually running the risk of being caught.

I remember a few years ago, a colleague at one school told me that the school claims ownership of any resources that the individual teachers might have created for classroom use. I thought it was bizzare, but that school under the law was in fact correct. They are the owner of the resource, not me. If I use a resource at another school, under the law I cannot use it because the resource is the property of the school.

And I recall one colleague embedding watermarks on their sheets to claim ownership, well the school owns them under the law, not the teacher. They would have to create the resource at home and publish it through a publisher to claim any ownership.

Copyright is a complex topic, but it will certainly inform me on how to advise teachers as to what has to be applied in terms of copyright in the classroom.

Revised Contact Form

The Contact Form has been updated. For some reason, it had disappeared as of late. I apologise to anyone who had been unable to access this feature

Library websites

Reading this article gave me an idea as I try to play with ways to attract people into a school library that may be underutilised. One positive about being a casual or temporary teacher is the ability to experiment and I have been progressively creating a template/s based on content on what I have found and links to various resources etc. It even helps me to manage the resources that I have created or used. The ultimate goal is to create a layout for a library website. I do like libguides as it allows for management of learning resources, but the cost can be prohibitive depending on the school that I might be based at, so I need to be able to have that format or layout ready to go. The fact it requires the use of Web 2.0 software allows it to happen. Anyways, I am having some fun with it. I am hoping to also write up on a Copyright Course that I am doing as I move along with it.