text book issue

[malook]

Does anyone have a foolproof method for getting science texts returned. I have the enviable job of record keeping of all texts, both junior & senior and because the students only pay $20 deposit for senior texts they often do not return them. As a consequence much of our annual budget gets spent on replacing texts.It also does not help that only some of my teachers bother to keep a record of which book is allocated to which student instead of sending the students to me so it can be recorded. The same applies to sets of junior texts. They are not counted in & out & as a result we have lost whole sets of our texts.
Helpful suggestions will be appreciated.

[fibreweb]

Our senior text books are distributed thgough the Library so they have the record of who has borrowed what book. They cannot sign out unless the books are accounted for.
The juniors do not have an individual science text, rather we have crates of class sets of text books that are taken to the class as needed. mainly Core science and Heinemann Inteactive though the are also sets of understanding science and numerous other ancient titles. Some boxes that havent been used in the 14 years I have been here. I've asked about tossing them but "someone may want them oneday"
We still however do loose text books when junior kids decide just to keep it because they can.
The Physics teacher likes to keep the books in the lab rather then the kids take them home which sometimes leads to kids ending up with books that don't match to the numbers assigned to them from the library.
All text books from all subjects go in and out through the library with bar codes and magnetic tags.

[Labbie]

For the seniors our principal, will not let students go to the formal unless they have returned their text books. Also with the students getting their result via phone, the year advisor would have that phone number, as they have to give it to the BOS. Most of our teachers are just great, some of the younger ones do not care. Just buy new ones!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[vlclabbie]

Ours are issued from the library too. It's their job to divy them out at the start of the year & collect them at the end. We are lucky! And I spose not all schools will want to go that way, so.......

I think if you are going to charge a deposit then it has to be enough to encourage them to return the book - $40? Perhaps an incentive for students / parents when they do return their textbook in good condition - the deposit is lower the following year? Instead of a deposit, our school charges the parents whatever it costs the next year to replace the book that wasn't returned.

I also like the idea of not releasing results or letting students attend end of year events until all texts are either returned or paid for. But we don't seem to need that threat which is fantastic!

Another suggestion is that our school has made a concerted effort to stop using one textbook & we know only buy teacher editions & a student edition so we can buy more than one. Photocopying goes up of course but it's still cheaper than buying tonnes of texts every year. And it has made the teachers more thoughtful about using the overhead projectors / interactive whiteboards & using the laptops on wheels. Okay if you have it all I suppose!

Talk to your HOD about the teachers who won't help?

Anyway I hope that helps. Good luck!

[JudyM]

If your library won't issue the textbooks then you'll have to do it. Get class lists on the first day back and ask each teacher when they plan (day and period) to hand out the books. Don't let the teachers get their hands on any books beforehand. You take the books in and record the number against each student's name. Do the same at the end of the year. Any not returned by the specified date - charge the parents.

[Labbie]

I agree Judy, but we have so many international students it is not funny. They stay with other families, and trying to get the books back is quite a game. "Oh they went back to ____________ to live" "Sorry I can not help you" Each year I pull my hair out over this, I do wish the library would do ours.