Prevention, Prevention, Prevention.  Aside from doing an extensive library introduction, and demonstrating the calamities that can befall books with the Library Cart of Horror (it’s a hit right before Halloween!), I make a big produciton of calling parents at the beginning of the school year if students start to forget their library books. I usually only have to do this once or twice , and the rest of the class tows the line for several weeks. But even the best laid plans. . .

Free Gifts! Seriously. I know some librarians are cringing as they read this, but  have run “Free gifts with any over due book” offers, and for the most part they are successful. This is especially good right at the beginning of the school year, when you’re aiming to get back  books from last year. The gift is usually  a pencil or sticker, but they’ll still go for it every time. 

Bookfair Bargains. I let selected kids buy a gift book for the library during the booksfair, and trade for the one they lost. This is my way of trading an old copy of something boring like “The Giver” (we have a million copies, anyway)  for the latest Naruto or an extra Twilight. 

End of Year Events. I tell kids I will keep them out of the big End of Year events if they owe me books. This works great for 99% of the the students. I have to wheel a shopping cart around campus to collect them all. 

Two for One. I will sometimes make deals with kids about their old fines, or fines I know are probably not for new, good condition books anyway. They return the brand new copy of  Tears of a Tiger, I’ll clear that paperback Goosebumps from two years ago. Lost a Bart Simpson comic that was on its last leg anyway? “I’ll give you a special deal– half price!” They think they’re getting a sweet deal while still being at least partially responsible, and I get to clear my fines. Win-win. 

About our library circulation policy: Plenty of librarians will not allow a child to check out a new book until they bring back the old ones, but when a whole class of 8th graders happily informed me during my first year “Oh, we owe fines, we can’t get books,” then proceed to talk and play the rest of the class period, I knew this was not going to work out.

It is our position that part of middle school is learning how to be responsible scholar, and that includes library use. I have told kids, “Library is no more a privilege than Math homework is a privilege. You will be a responsible library user, even if I have to call parents and assign detention to get you to do it.” We have one of the highest circulations in the district, and lot of overdues, but after all is said and done, we don’t see any greater losses compared to the other libraries in our district.