Society in microcosm, episode #348

[velvetpage]

I had a chat with my principal about the protocols involved in getting payment for lost books. Unsurprisingly, the families with the most lost books are also the families we are most worried about in other ways. Mental illness runs unchecked in these families, we regularly have to decide if such-and-such a thing is worthy of a CAS call, and when there are a collection of characters at the office, at least half of the usual suspects also have lost library books.

The bottom line: we cannot force payment of library books before letting these families do other things with the school community. We can't force payment at all. The reasoning is that for most of them, the problem isn't something fixable by more effort or better responsibility; it's about lack of resources, in particular mental health and money. The mental health issues keep them from being able to take care of their library books to begin with, and the lack of money keeps them from being able to replace the books.

The good news is that in the entire school, there are fewer than forty lost books, and nearly half of those went missing since March Break, which suggests to me that there's a good chance they'll turn up when I send home a letter with a dollar amount in it. Considering that at this time last year, there were more than three HUNDRED books listed as lost or overdue, that's pretty good. But the fact is, I'm not going to get back most of the money for those lost books. I'll get back some of it - mostly from those families where the lost book really was an accident and they're basically responsible people.

I'm of two minds about this. On the one hand, I can see where the "it's not their fault" justification comes from, and I get the equity thing. Heaven knows I struggle enough to keep organized, and I'm a functional adult by any reasonable standard. Making sure that the kids who need the library the most get a fair shot at using it, regardless of their parents' ability to pay library fines, is a reasonable goal.

On the other hand, I understand why more functional people look at decisions like this and get angry at those they perceive to be taking advantage of the system. I especially understand when it's quite obvious that they ARE taking advantage. We've heard these kids say things like, "My mom says we don't have to pay for this trip because you'll let us go anyway, so we got pizza last night instead." In an effort to understand and account for the ways in which it is not their fault, we've set up a situation where what little responsibility they might have taken is no longer necessary. We've removed any sense of agency from them.

I've run my library on a shoestring budget. I've spent just over five hundred dollars for the entire year; I've insisted on books being returned before another book goes out, though the head librarians in my board question that decision on equity grounds, too, with the result that I have one missing book for every five students instead of two missing books for every three; I've kept the place shipshape despite my own difficulties with organization, so that if a kid says a book was returned, I can pinpoint where it should be and either track it down or be very sure of myself when I tell them they didn't return it; and at the end of the day, I have no leverage to finish the job and keep my collection from deteriorating. That's incredibly frustrating.

Comments

[failstoexist.livejournal.com]

Is this each family losing one book, or multiple books? Can you have the kids who have lost a book and not paid for it able to read books, bring them to class perhaps, but not bring them home? Maybe it would save you from repetitive losses of books.

Sounds like you've gotten the library into great shape, really. :)

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

There are a couple of families that have one book lost per child, and a couple of other families where I've pushed them so hard and sicced older siblings on the younger ones, so I'm only missing one book per family despite the kids' best efforts to lose them.

There's really no way to let a kid take a book out of the library without also letting them take it home. They do have classroom libraries they can access as well, so they're not bereft of books if I refuse to let them take one.

[threekidsinky.livejournal.com]

That is the age-old librarian frustration! We had the same issues even at a public library where we DID have the ability to cut them off and serve collection agencies on them for lost book fees...still, as children's librarians who saw what many of these children came from to begin with, it was difficult on one hand to cut them off from the library, but also difficult to manage budget-wise. And it was always the popular books that never returned, thus making our collection overall less appealing.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I realized today that one of the missing books is one of my brand-new Bone books. I had to replace those just last year, and they cost twelve dollars each. And my collection of dinosaur books has been unfairly hit by the losses - I think four of the forty books are dinosaur books, though they take up one shelf only of library space.

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

Collection agencies? Shades of Mr. Bookman (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9tP9fI2zbE)!

[threekidsinky.livejournal.com]

LOL...I actually worked for a library about 20 years ago who had "library detectives" on staff, who actually would spend their days going from house to house of people who had long-overdue materials to see if they could collect them (and in turn waiving a certain amount of overdue fine).

Another library I worked for did actually send patron's bills to a collection agency if they had over $100 worth of long-overdue materials and hadn't responded to the library's requests for payment. It was only for lost materials though, never for overdue fines.

[aelf.livejournal.com]

We have The Book Thing, locally (http://www.bookthing.org/). I wonder if there's not something like that where you could potentially redirect people who might be walking away with books because they don't own any books. Or perhaps use it as a way to augment your library collection?

I understand the conflict. I tend to think that for elem. school, you're making the right choice. For middle school or older, I might feel more inclined to require some sort of library service hours to "pay" for a missing book, but then too you'd need to limit it to time the children would already be in school and doing something like a study hall.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

I don't think they're keeping books because they don't have any - or at least, not most of them. They're keeping them because the books get lost under piles of stuff and they can never find them when they're thinking about them. Out of sight, out of mind, so the books never come back.

We don't even have study hall, and I don't want volunteers who have a beef against me for making them be there. More trouble than it's worth.

[ruggerdavey.livejournal.com]

In an effort to understand and account for the ways in which it is not their fault, we've set up a situation where what little responsibility they might have taken is no longer necessary. We've removed any sense of agency from them.

EXACTLY. This is a MAJOR problem with my school as well. Growing up, we didn't have a lot. We were even on reduced lunch for awhile after my dad got really sick, but we went off it as soon as we were in a better financial situation. And even after that, we didn't have much - any vacations we went on were paid for by my grandparents...and we always paid for field trips. And yet many of my kids go to Florida every summer, have houses at "the lake," etc etc, but they pay nothing for lunch and nothing for field trips. I am even expected to provide them with pencils and paper and everything else, and if I don't give it to them then it's somehow MY fault they can't do their work...and yet these same kids are ones that need a new pencil every day (or more than once a day).

It is just SO frustrating.

[brockulfsen.livejournal.com]

You are right about not wanting resentful assistants, but perhaps there is other work in the school community they could do to help instill responsibility?

Can you get the write off for social equity reasons be made a line item in your budget, so their is a record of how much unrecoverable losses affect your bottom line?

Can you get outside sponsorship for book purchases to up the value and utility of the library and cover the losses? Perhaps a service organization in your area? Lions, Masons, or something of that ilk. Police & Fire Stations are often willing to pass the hat around for a random good cause.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure my principal would support something that feels like a punishment due to lost books, for the same reasons; the parents aren't the only ones suffering from mental illnesses, here.

I don't have control over the budget - in fact I've never seen one, which is one of the few serious beefs I have with my current principal. I'll mention it at the next teacher-librarians' meeting and see what they say, though.

I'm planning to call the local Lions Club and Rotary Club this fall about donations. Beefing up a school library is an excellent way to use up the last bit of random charitable money they need to have off their books come tax time, but I didn't get that far this past year. I am making very good use of every dollar I get. Most of my additions to my collection were either used (a church garage sale, Value Village, that kind of thing) or sales tables at big retail stores. Or the Scholastic Book Fair - I got one of almost every book at the Fair, we did so well. So I've got about four hundred new books on the shelves in the course of the year, one way or another.

[brockulfsen.livejournal.com]

What age range does your library service? What ability levels?

Perhaps you could put a call out for good condition books from friends and communities?

Being half a world away, all I can offer is random observations.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

We go from age four to age eleven, every reading level. I've already got calls out to all my friends and family for good-condition used children's books, and I've had a few donations that way.