Inventory and closing down circulation

[Pat Ropchan]

Hello,
I work in a private 1 - 12 school and have traditionally ended circulation about two weeks before the end of the school (includes exam period). I do not close the library and students can still use the resources on site. We have a new elementary principal this year who says we shouldn't expect materials back until the Friday before school is out (which is the Monday following).

Do you do an annual inventory and do you close circulation early at the end of the year? We are always ready for classes on the first day back in the fall. Do many of you open late in the fall term?

I am meeting with her tomorrow so am in desperate need of some scenarios in other schools.

Thanks,
Pat

[Durff]

We stopped circulation last month! That way, we can realistically expect to get back all items that are in circulation. We did make some exceptions for middle school students who have reports due this week. But even that is a full week before we close!
You NEED that time just to get everything back, let alone do inventory, which we won't do until summer.
We are a PreK-12 grade private school in Hagerstown, Maryland.
I hope you are very persuasive!!

[Mary Schwander]

Hi, Pat~

I am the librarian at a high school for grades 9-12. We ask that all materials are returned 3 weeks before the last day and we do inventory most years. Our middle school does the same. I sent out this question last year to librarians and this is the norm.
I hope you can persuade your principal that you need those materials much earlier than one school day prior! I can't imagine!

Good luck!

Mary

[Robin Harwood]

Hi Pat,

I'm at a K-6 building. I do not allow checkout the last two weeks of school so that students have time to return their books, and I have enough time to remind them or issue overdue notices if they don't. A single day is not even enough time to reshelve, let alone inventory or get back missing materials.

Best of luck discussing this with your principal,
Robin

[Sara Q]

Does any one have any good ideas for an elementary school - to have the kids want to return their books - like any kind of motivation ideas??

[Ava]

I usually post a "race." Who will get all their books back first - the teachers or the students?? First side to zero wins. I can run the reports and tally up the numbers fairly quickly so it's not too complicated.

While not "motivating," I also found a great "Fugitive Book Recovery Agent" t-shirt at cafepress.com. I usually wear that a lot as a reminder. I also post lists at Field Days! There's nothing like peer pressure amongst parents to get books in. Had one bring in a book and say she had to after three people had told her that her child's name was on the list.

[Carole Horger]

Traditionally, I have not had students the last week of school and the first week of school every year. All books were due their library day, with 2 weeks left of school. This year I did have students coming for class until the very last day. I actually had my classrooms of third through sixth graders doing inventory. My middle and high school assistants were a huge help, too. I don't have a portable unit, so one group would load books onto a cart, another group would scan and look for errors, another set would deliver books to those shelving. I had other students washing tables, clearing the walls, delivering overdue notices. It was fun until it got chaotic.

As far as the fall term goes, I really do not want to have students check out books until the third week of school. Our enrollment secretaries have not got the data into our system (Infinite Campus) in any shape to download until near the end of the second week, and there is a lot of work to do for me to get our system ready for the new year.

We don't do an inventory every year, in fact, it's been quite a few years since we've done one. Spectrum allows you to inventory a small section at a time and you can still allow check outs whenever you want by closing inventory and going back to check out.

My school is K-12 with two libraries.

Good luck!
Carole

[Melissa Rippy]

We do inventory when the most books are already checked out - during the school year. The automation system knows where they are - they are checked out. This way you don't have to scan as many barcodes to complete inventory. Also, we don't inventory the entire collection every year (gasp!). We do it over 3 years. Just rotate the sections so that they all get done. This way you are open for the kids (and teachers too) when they need reading materials the most.

[Alan]

I'm with Melissa on this one. I only inventory one section/year, so the whole lib is done on a 3 year cycle. Recently I've also been wondering why not inventory at a quiet time in mid term, rather than at the end when everyone (teachers & students) are busy?

Damaged books can be spotted on return at any time. Lost books will show up as longterm overdues. The only downside is you cant actually see the collection physically which I find is helpful for collection analysis and maintainance. As Melissa said the computer knows where the books are so does it matter where they are when we count them?

This sounds kind of radical but for the life of me I can't see why. Feedback anyone?