In Taking Care of Your Classroom Library Books, I shared results from a summer survey of teachers on how they manage their classroom libraries and advice from my local library focusing on book care. In this follow-up post, I will share more results from the summer survey focusing on the check-out systems.
In early June, I asked teachers on the Notice and Note, The Reading Strategies Book Community, and Teaching Teens: Reading, Writing, and Technology for Diverse Learners Facebook groups to complete a short survey about their classroom libraries. In just one day, I had 158 responses.
As a junior high teacher new to classroom libraries and concerned about losing track of books (and my hefty investment), I used this survey to get a better sense of teachers’ systems for checking out and keeping track of books. I think middle and secondary teachers can learn a lot from elementary teachers with regard to organization and systems. However, there is a difference between following 30 some readers and their books and following 150 readers and their books.
My Failed Systems
I started last year with book bins categorized by genre first, then topics (e.g., realistic fiction/sports). I downloaded an app for organizing and checking out books, and I spent days and days scanning all my books into the app. I added student names so that they could easily check out books, and I would have a log of their reading habits and a handle on where all our precious books were going. I even assigned student librarians to help with the book checkout (and to be sure it was done right). And then we ran into problems. While I was trying to conference, the librarian would say a bar code did not scan or the site had a glitch. I had 90 students using the classroom library last year, and I knew who was reading what because of the conferences and blogs. I am not a data person, so I was not going to use the app data for anything other than regathering books, and I couldn’t trust a system or the data that only had some of the checkouts and returns. I broke up with the system. It did not do what I needed it to do (likely user error).
Next, about a month into the school year, I got a couple binders and gave each student his/her own page, but gradually that fell apart, too. I guess our way of recommending and sharing books defied neat systems. During a conference, I might bring over five books to a student to look over before moving to the next student to confer. What happened to those five books? Which ones did he/she choose? I wouldn’t know until I read her exit slip or blog. Did she check it out on her page in the binder or did the bell ring before she could? Matching readers and books is not really systematic.
Read this one. Try this one. Give this to her. Take three or four and reading the first few pages. Which one did you keep? Oh, you finished it in one night? Oh, you abandoned it — no flow? Okay, what’s next? Don’t like it? Put it back? Talk to so and so about that book.
I kept the binders. Some students liked having their own page — a growing list of their reading experiences. It worked for some, but many students broke up with the binder system. I did not stress about it. I mostly knew who was reading what and were the books were, but I lost some books that year.
In 2016-17, I will have twice as many readers using my library, and I am worried that my history of break-ups will catch up with me and my bank account.
Survey Results on Book Check Out Systems
To help me figure out a better system (and hoping there’d be a way I didn’t need a system), I went to my virtual teacher friends and asked one pretty straightforward question: Describe your book check out system. As I looked over the results, I was processing the honest responses and clever ideas alongside the logistics: How can I make this work in my classroom library and for me (knowing I lack discipline)? Click on the link for all the responses, and read on for a few excerpts:
All of my books are organized by topic/genre/series. For example: Football, Adventure/Survival, American Girl, Mystery, Realistic Fiction, Biographies (separate bins for men and women) Sea Life, Poetry, Little House on the Prairie…you get the idea. 🙂 Students take books out of the bins as they need them. When they are done, they return them to the “Librarian’s bin.” I have 2 “librarians” in my room who keep the book bins tidy and add new labels to books as I add new books to my library. These 2 kids reshelve the books according to the color -coded labels. For example, the “football” bin has a special label and that label is is on each football book as well as the bin for easy resolving. The only downside to this system is I don’t have a “log” of who has checked out which books. But, because my library is a bit of an obsession of mine, I pay close attention to what books are in the librarian’s bin, which helps me to know what’s popular. It’s hard for my to give an exact number of how many books I “lose” out of the library, but in 9 years of having a system like this, I honestly don’t remember ever having a year where I noticed more than 5 or so books missing.
All of my library books have a library card in them. In my library is a card catalog box. Each child’s name is on a card divider put in alphabetical order. When a student checks out a book, they put the library book card behind their name card in the box. When they return the book, they put it in the “book return” basket. A volunteer or I put the library cards back in the pocket and return the book to the appropriate place in the library. If they are not taking the book home and it is just staying in their desk, they do not “check out” the book by removing the library card. They simply keep it at their desk and they return it to the correct area of the library when finished.
Each student has a 5×8 card where they write the date, book title & author of book they are borrowing. When they return the book, they cross off the book title on the 5×8 card. Each class period has their own ring for easy access for students. Cards are located next to the library return bin as a reminder to cross off the returned book.
Children go book shopping once a week where they choose 3-4 books on their level, 1 book above their level, and 2 choice books. They return those books on their book shopping day. The books stay in their book boxes all week and do not go home. We have specific books in our hallway that children are allowed to take home.
Check out/check in sheet on my door. They put name, book title, date checked out. When they bring back they put date checked in on same line, and I mark through it with a marker
Honor system (most common response):They just tell me verbally they are borrowing & I say, “I hope you enjoy it & return for another reader to enjoy.”
I allow kids to borrow 1-2 books. I don’t keep track of who has which books. If a book ends up not returned, I’m of the attitude that it is going to someone who needs it more than I do. I get the majority of my books with bonus points, at garage sales, or at thrift stores. I also tell kids that they can always return after the school year. One student knew that in the summer I am often at our local pool, and returned a boon to me there just this week that she found when she cleaned her room.
I bought the class library organization system from Really Good Stuff. The sticker on the book matches the label on the bin. Students put the books away themselves.
“I have nothing in place” and “I’ve given up.”
I have students take a “shelfie” on my iPad with their book when they check it out. When they are ready to return, I just delete their photo.
Apps: Book Retriever; A+; BookSource Classroom Organizer; Google forms
With all the good ideas submitted on the survey, some of the responses indicate that despite systems and intentions, the process became too time-consuming or clunky to keep up, which echoed my experiences.
I have used a card check out system in the past. I found it to be too time-consuming for me. In the end, I still lost books, which was very frustrating to me and to students because I spent time hounding them. I currently do not formally check books out, but rather place three books in a canvas bag and then each day students return the three and get three new ones. Less time spent in taking cards in and out and the same number of books are still lost…so in the end it didn’t matter.
It’s simple. I don’t check out books. I use labels with my name on it and stick those right on the front cover and on the inside page. Usually I don’t let kids take my books home–we have a school library, but if they’re really into a book and ask, I will let them take it home. They almost always come back (some may take a year or two!) I also try not to spend a lot of money on books so if a few get lost, it’s not such a big deal. I rely heavily on Scholastic book orders–and use coupons & bonus points. I tried a barcode system once and decided that the time and effort it took to set up and maintain wasn’t worth it. I’d rather buy a few new books.
I am not at the point where I wouldn’t let students take books home, but I do know that quite a few students take a book in September, shove it in their backpacks, and then “discover” it in May, so perhaps some students don’t need to check out a book — just have a space to “hold” their book for daily reading.
I am getting the feeling that loss is part of the classroom library experience, and that I have to work through the grieving process hoping the book landed somewhere that another will pick it up and enjoy it. Oh Cicada Moon, I hope you found a home.
Still, when new books arrive, you are going to want to protect them and keep up with your inventory even if you are okay with the honor system. Right?
What Works for Your Readers and Your Sanity
As I described above, I failed at being disciplined with any particular system (and I’ll likely fail again), but I will have more new books this year that I want to have on hand to share with that just right student at that just right moment.
I think how you develop your system does depend on the number of readers you have and your personality. The survey results offer a lot of ideas, so I hope you’ve found one that might be a good fit. Perhaps after reading the survey results, you’ve realized that your “system” is, well, good enough.
This school year, I will have close to 180 students using our classroom library. I want to be sure that during individual reading time that I can spend time talking about books and reading experiences rather than monitoring book checkout/returns. The bottom line for me is that I just don’t want the checkout-return system to interfere with the precious time I confer with students.
At a minimum, I need to physically keep track of the new books. I will gradually log the older ones in a form, but the new titles I am ordering my through Amazon because of a school grant that requires it (no taxes and free shipping). The orders are my inventory, and I have a wish list here for students and their families to “gift” a NEW book to our classroom library. (I read almost every book on this list if you want to talk about them.) I’ll use this list to do a physical inventory in December and May. This may mean the new books are off the floor for a week or so.
So what will you do differently for 2016-17 to keep your inventory of beautiful books in tact? Did you take away anything from these survey results?Will you modify your current ways or stay the course?
The summer survey prompted two other great bits of information 1) ideas for organizing the classroom library (with pictures) and 2) titles of the most-read/loved books in the 2015-16 school year. Read on.
Ideas for Organizing the Classroom Library
Chelsea shared some pictures to help us imagine how she organizes her amazing 4th grade classroom library. The stickers on the bin labels match the stickers on the books, which we can cover with book tape.
Finally, I couldn’t resist asking about which titles were most checked-out (or just taken as desired for those of us who abandoned our systems). In my classroom, there were so many, but my colleague and I wrote a blog about the favorites here: Top Ten Books to Start a Classroom Library (Plus Ten More).Here is a link to all the responses from the survey (What were the most loved). Kwame Alexander’s The Crossover was the most popular based on this survey (which made my list, too), but here are a few others:
Most of my graphic novels were big this year, El Deafo, Sisters, Smile, Drama… My students were also into dystopian novels like the Divergent series and The Maze Runner series. My sports fiction section was also popular with books by Carl Dueker, Mike Lupica, John Feinstein, and Kwame Alexander being the hot authors.
I would bet that some of the most loved books way back in 2006 were loved this year too: Give A Boy A Gun; Drums Girls and Dangerous Pie; anything by Neal Shusterman (who was our visiting author); anything by Sharon Draper, How to be Popular, Outsiders (for strugglers and academically talented) Looking for Alaska, Twilight (no comment)
What more can we say about classroom libraries? I’d love to hear additional tips, discoveries, words of advice, or even condolences for books disappeared this year.
As for the upcoming school year, I have been doing Donalyn Miller’s #bookaday challenge this summer, so I have many, many books that I look forward to sharing with students. Follow me on Instagram. Here is a PDF of my Goodreads Library.
“Oh, ‘Cicada Moon,’ I hope you found a home!” Sounds a LOT like me! Wonder, Gone (x 2), One For the Murphys…. Sigh. I just have to keep doing it, though! I’ve got a card in each book, by the way. They put their name on it, put it in the little black box under the letter of their first or last name, and then put it back in when they’re done. I get most back. Most are purchased inexpensively at book sales, however. Any NEW books I use their gift cards to purchase. 😉
I lamented the book loss to Penny Kittle once, and she told me that if I wasn’t losing 20% of my library, I wasn’t picking the right books. I loved that answer. It doesn’t help my wallet, but I remembered who this is about. I do use Booksource app on the iPad and my junior high kids take care of it themselves. I have had very few technical glitches and most of the books eventually came back. If they didn’t? I usually knew who lost it. I asked that if they lost a book, they donate a few dollars to the library fund or replace it with the same or otherwise gently loved book. I spent time at the beginning (with a few reminders throughout the year) on our community and taking care of it for each other.