Librarians, help me out!

November 8, 2008 1:14 PM

What is a normal rate for losing books from a school or public library?

I've had trouble finding information about this because libraries seem reluctant to admit it. I work in a school library where the budget, and my own employment, are precarious. I have to justify a non-return rate of about 25-30%. In short, a quarter of the students who check out books never return them. I have not had much success with various inducements and threats with this 25% (conduct rewards, billing letters).

Given that the school takes economically disadvantaged and troubled students, I suppose that I'm lucky they haven't walked off with the entire library.

But if I could show to my supervisor that losses of this sort are normal (e.g. in public libraries in poor areas), I might feel happier about my job. I'm new as a librarian and not fully trained (I'm working on my MLS.)

posted by bad grammar to work & money (10 comments total)

I've worked in school libraries for ten years, public libraries for eight. 25% is a really high non-return rate. Most of my school libraries were in higher income brackets and never had more than 5% non-return rate, but even the inner-city secondary school had less then 20 outstanding books at the end of the year in a school over over two thousands students. The public library may be a bit higher, maybe closer to 10% but most of that money is recouped through a collection agency. Ultimately though, you only have so much power as a librarian and the administration should be using their leverage to get the books back (withholding grades/computer privileges/diplomas/attendance on field trips etc).

Can you sit down with the administration to brainstorm ideas to improve your return rate? It would take a lot of my time contacting students and parents but since I didn't have the money to replace the books I was pretty determined to get the books back. You should also look into any grants that may be available to you, if you can provide an income stream targeted to the library it may prove your worth.
posted by saucysault at 2:26 PM on November 8, 2008

"The average loss rate for public libraries was 5.3 percent" (p.175 "Planning Public Library Buildings By Michael Dewe") and that source is footnoted, so it is probably worth looking up the original study. The book also mentioned a situation of 15% losses, so further reading might verify your stats.

Can you do a phone survey of your peer institutions? Maybe even setup an online survey on surveymonkey or similar, and email it to librarians at other schools in your area, and promise anonymity and that you will share the results with them?
posted by misterbrandt at 2:29 PM on November 8, 2008

Would you like help strategizing on getting kids to return books? Perhaps an AskMe for another stage?
posted by Riverine at 2:45 PM on November 8, 2008

Back in the day I felt very isolated in the library and used LM_NET as my virtual colleagues. You might want to puruse their archives for posts about overdues.
posted by saucysault at 3:02 PM on November 8, 2008

What age of students are you working with? Obviously this will change the answer a bit. Are you looking for advice on how to influence the return rate positively?
posted by pazoozoo at 6:10 PM on November 8, 2008

Well, this would be up to the school district, but our local public library uses a collection agency. Another inducement the district could use would be an inability to enroll a student next year with unreturned books (really, you can't trust them with school property, so why give it to them again?). The information could come up at parent-teacher nights (but disadvantaged students don't get much parental participation as it is).

One thing YOU can do is perhaps a fine amnesty. "All books returned by Thanksgiving will pay no fines, after that fines double."

I really think the best thing that YOU can do is some kind of education initiative.

Another idea I just had is some kind of anonymized peer pressure. Come into Ms. Smith's morning English class and announce the number of books that class hasn't returned on time, and try to track progress toward zero. Award prizes for the class that gets there fastest.
posted by dhartung at 10:09 PM on November 8, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

I've never figured out the numbers for our school library (inner-city school), but I know
we aren't losing a quarter of our books.

I've found that just telling parents that they will have to pay for the book was "mostly" effective though. My administration allows me to hold grade cards for students who haven't returned books.

Mostly, though, you're issue isn't going to be with the parents than it is with the students themselves. I've done extensive work with the students talking about where they put their books when they go home, how they treat the books, and in general just make a VERY BIG DEAL out of it. This doesn't reach all of them, but enough that the books left in the school bathroom or on the floor generally make it back to the library.

Feel free to mefi mail me with any other questions! I just started being a librarian three years ago and I'm not formally trained either so I definitely understand where you are coming from.
posted by aetg at 7:09 AM on November 9, 2008

*your issue

duh.
posted by aetg at 7:09 AM on November 9, 2008

It is a special education school (I can't give details due to confidentiality) where many students have ADD, ADHD, or oppositional and conduct disorders. Many come from poor and chaotic homes. Some of the students with overdues have been truant for weeks. I've sent billing notices to their homes. So I really can't compare circulation return figures from a middle-class school with well-behaved, Ivy-college-bound kids with intact families.
posted by bad grammar at 3:56 PM on November 9, 2008

Hmm, as I said, I worked in a secondary school that was inner city, had a lot of students with similar challenges (students are integrated here) but did not have your high non-return rate because the administration gave me teeth to bite the students with (withholding grades. field trips, privileges). Your rate of return would NOT be okay with most administrators, and blaming the problem on student's challenges would not be productive. You need to approach the administration with the problem, and have on-hand suggestions for solving the problem. Something I've learned over the years is never approach administration with a problem unless you have a couple of realistic solutions to offer.

Are you a private school or are you affiliated with other school under a larger organisation? If so, can you network with other librarians in your area with their suggestions of what works within the policies of your current school? Some schools won't allow you to hold back the report cards but will allow you to insist that parents come in person to pick up the card and be presented with the bill for outstanding library books and embarrassed into paying the bill. What kind of books are being lost? I didn't care so much about paperback novels that were only going to be "hot" that one year anyways, I figured at least someone was reading them. But a $200 reference book was another thing entirely. What about limiting what students take out, one book per student, increasing the circulation number as they prove their trustworthiness. The longer a book is out the greater the chances of it never coming back. So send out overdues immediately. Call students out of class constantly. Phone home everyday (including in the evening when students can't erase messages, and phone the parents at work as well). They will either return the book or pay up to get rid of you. Buy cheap books and keep the expensive new ones as reference only. How does your school deal with textbooks? One school I worked at would not allow students to write their final exams until all textbooks (and library materials) were either returned or paid for. Maybe the administrations considers the 25% loss the cost of doing business?

If however, you feel you are being scapegoated into taking the blame for poor policies by your school (and an unfortunately common scenario) then the only solution is to find another job.
posted by saucysault at 6:38 AM on November 10, 2008