Lost Books

Today I spent several hours preparing lost book notices for our students. Last week I went to a media workshop. One of the speakers encouraged us to spend less time on overdue book notices and give all children the chance to check out. I'm not a librarian yet but I already struggle with this. I know that some loss is inevitable but it is hard to see any books lost when we get so little money to purchase new ones. As it is, much of limited book budget goes to replace missing A/R books. Each Accelerated Reader test costs $2.99. We purchased 60 new books at the Market for $300. A couple of the vendors were selling library bound books for $5! We stocked up. Now we have to spend another $180 plus tax for the tests. If we weren't using A/R then we could have 16 more books.

We are preparing to weed the fiction section and most of our discards will be books that do not have A/R tests available. Very few students read books unless it is an A/R book on their level. I have seen many students benefit from this program but I don't think it promotes lifelong reading. Whenever we lose a book, it is always an A/R book and usually less than two years old. Since we already own the test we end up replacing that book instead of getting a new title. Many I schools or those with affluent PTA's purchase a subscription that gives them access to all existing tests. The last time I checked it would cost over $2500 to set up and then yearly payments. I have difficulty getting printer paper and tape. I expect I'll spend at least $100 this year on supplies for the Media Center. This is when someone with more stamina would be writing grants. Instead I will lobby for the book fair profits to go to the Media Center instead of the general PTA budget.

When I worked on those overdue notices I was struck by how many were for new students. I expect they came from schools that did not have any media assistants or reliable volunteers. Some of these books were checked out last April or May. I have asked that all books be returned before they can check out this year. If the student has really lost the book then I just need to make contact with a parent. Last year we started collecting check-out permission slips. This is another great project for a media assistant like me. I don't know what my boss will do when I graduate. I will be tough to replace. When we started the program our losses went way down. We did have three parents who didn't their child to check out at all and a couple more who limited older students to one book. Having the parent information was great. When Susie couldn't find her library book Icould call or e-mail her mother and we usually got the book back.

I hope I don't sound like the book police! I am always willing to reduce or waive fees and we never charge overdue fines.

Tomorrow night I have another class. I hope I get to campus early enough to pick up my parking permit.