It's the end of the day. My wonderful assistant has emptied "The Cart" and all the books are re-shelved for the moment. There's a lot of books in here. The shelves are full. Something is wrong with this picture.
Two reasons for this come quickly to mind: 1. I need to weed the collection or 2. Kids are not checking out very many books. Both reasons have validity and I realize that I need to work on both areas. Weeding is ongoing and needed right now because we have been so lucky to have great funding this year for library books and there really is not space to keep everything even if I wanted to. So weeding aside, what about circulation?
Our flex/fix schedule is not the best for encouraging lots of circulation. For one thing, kids are not "allowed" by their teachers to come to the library because of the rigid schedules classroom teachers must adhere to. Some teachers work around this well, most do not. We do a crazy-busy amount of checkout before school from 7am-7:30---but that is the most stressful time of day and so rushed. We have the school store and the morning TV show in the library during that time also. Hurry-hurry-rush-rush.
During the fixed week, it is really up to the classroom teachers to make sure the kids bring their books back when they come to the library for Specials time. If the students forget their books they can't go back to the classroom to get them. Other issues that affect checkout during Specials time is the fact that some classes come directly from the recess on the playground and they don't bring books. The 5th grade goes directly to lunch from Library Specials and the kids don't want to carry books through the lunch line then out to the playground for recess. Again, it is the classroom teacher's attitude towards all the schedule issues that affect if her kids checkout books.
One thing I've been considering is changing the number of books each student can checkout at one time. Last year I upped the number for 2nd-5th grade from 2 books to 3 books. Kindergarten is 1 book and 1st grade is 2 books. Should I raise the number this year?
The last thing is my observation on what is happening with circulation. Teachers are not checking out books for their classrooms like they used to. Why? I think it is because the kids do not read books much anymore. They read computerized programs designed to increase test scores, they read printed-out on paper leveled booklets, they rotate through "stations" that are laminated worksheets and paper games, and they listen to teachers read from books that are deemed to teach a certain comprehension skill. They also have tubs and tubs of paperback books called "classroom libraries". My final observation is that kids are not checking out chapter books as they get older--they really do not want to checkout picture books either. They are choosing non-fiction books more often than a picture book or chapter book. This is interesting and I've added more non-fiction books to the collection in the past few years than fiction books because of the demand. What this means I do not know...I'm still observing.
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Have you given any thought to a "book mobile" approach for collecting books? If not your assistant then perhaps a responsible 5th grader could pull a wagon (or even a book cart) around to the classes scheduled for that day to collect book returns. Then the books could all be checked in, reports run, and before these classes ever came for their "special" you would know which students will be unable to checkout. These students could be directed to a book basket for browsing while the rest check out. On number of books, we allow five books at a time. It would be interesting if you posted some circ stats here. Numbers often tall a new story. Thanks for sharing Sabra.
ReplyDeleteWith regard to your last observation, non-fiction stories may probably serve as a form of release from every day boredom and the stress of their day to day lives.
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