Getting Books and Fines Turned in Before the School Year Ends

It is always a challenge to get students to return all library materials by the end of the year.  This year I tried a couple of new ideas.  Okayed by my principal, these "events" had results better than I had expected.

 

Last month I held a 50% off day in the library.  I picked a date which happened to coincide with a school dance (students would be bringing money to school).  It was for one day only.  Students could pay 50% of a lost book and current library fines (books had to be turned in).  For those long overdue books that were more than two month old you could offer only a 1.00 fine.  This brought back books students were embarrassed to bring back because of fines.

I then followed this with another “special”.  Our students are organized by an advisory teacher/class (all students are reached and no one is counted twice).  This was the Library Fine/Donut reward.  Any advisory class that had no fines or over dues by May 2 would earn donuts for that class.  It was an all or none deal.  One person with a .10 fine could prevent the class from earning donuts.  I gave them a two week window to work on taking care of business.  As it worked out, this was a good example of peer pressure as students reminded each other to take care of their responsibilities.  The teachers and I took the back seat.

I thought I would only have to buy for 3-5 classes.  We had 10 classes with clean records!!  Thank goodness the principal stepped in to help and bought the donuts.  I purchased 22 dozen donuts for some very excited patrons.

I will end the year by holding the yearbooks of students with library books and fines not taken care of after the ceiling date has been reached.  We strive to hold students accountable.  If they can pay for a yearbook then they should be able to take care of a .50 fine.