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What About Lost or Damaged Books?
"Mistakes are lessons of wisdom." -- Hugh White  Here is a photo of an actual damaged book from the PFE Library. What do you think happened to it? The correct answer is provided at the bottom of this web page. Scroll down to the bottom of the page for the answer. No one wakes up in the morning with the goal of losing or damaging a library book. Accidents happen. At the PFE Library, we assume that all of our students do their best to take good care of the materials they borrow from the library. So here's what to do if your family runs into any of these problems: Oh no, we a lost a library book. Now what? If the book has been lost for less than four weeks, we ask you to keep looking for it. Your child will receive weekly friendly reminders in library class to remind him/her to keep looking for the missing item. After four weeks have passed since the book was due, the book is officially considered lost. At that point, your family must choose to either return the missing item or pay the replacement cost. The best case scenario is the return of the actual missing library book. If that is not going to happen, please provide the library with either the cash (correct change only, please) or a check (made out to SCASD) to cover the replacement cost. If an exact copy of the missing item cannot be obtained by the librarian, she will substitute a similar title. Once payment of the replacement cost is made, your money is deposited into the bank and it cannot be refunded. If the missing item is located after payment, it becomes the property of your family. Please be aware that library books are becoming more and more expensive. The average cost of a hardback children's book is now $24.00 Many parents experience "sticker shock" when they are presented with a bill for lost library books. It is also important to know that the library cannot accept used or new copies of missing items in place of paying the replacement cost. Many of our books are purchase with special library bindings to make them more durable for heavy use. For this reason, school district policy only permits library staff to accept cash or check payments for the replacement of lost items. Please contact Mrs. Collins if you need further assistance with this problem. Oh no, we accidentally damaged a library book. Now what? During library classes, your children learn to protect their books from the four most comon ways library books end up damaged:
If this happens to a book checked out to your child, please reassure your child that he or she will not "get in trouble" in the library. Explain that he/she will have to tell Mrs. Collins about what happened and that your family may have to pay to replace the damaged item(s). Mrs. Collins stresses that with all students while teaching her lessons about good book care but many students feel very guilty and upset if their library books accidentally become damaged, despite her reassurances. Send the damaged item back to school with a note explaining what happened. Mrs. Collins will then take a look at the damage and see if she can repair the problem. If not, your family will need to pay the replacement cost. In some special cases, your family may be assessed the costs of repairing the damage, especially if the book may be fixed by the bindery the library uses. Each damaged book will be assessed on a case-by-case basis. Once again, if you must pay replacement costs you may pay by cash (correct change only, please) or by check (made out to: SCASD). Money paid for damaged items cannot be refunded. If you have any further questions, please contact Mrs. Collins. Oh no, we mistakenly returned a PFE book to the wrong library. Now what? If your family uses several different libraries, this may happen very easily. Once you have discovered this problem, please contact the library where you believe you may have returned the item from PFE. The barcodes used by the school district's libraries cannot be read by the barcode scanners at Schlow -- so the public library's staff catches these mix-ups. They will eventually mail the school district's book back to the proper school. Also, please send a not into school to explain to Mrs. Collins what has happened, alerting her to the situation as well. If the book is not eventually returned to the PFE Library, your family may still be responsible for paying the replacement cost of the missing item. Sometimes students mistakenly return Schlow items to the PFE Library. We catch this problem almost immediately at school since your child usually reutrns his/her library books during library classes. Schlow barcodes cannot be read by our school's library system, so we tend to notice these books right away and get them back to the correct borrower. If you have any further questions about this process, please contact Mrs. Collins. Answer to the question at the top of this page: this PFE Library book was damaged by a dog chewing on it. _____________________________________________________________________________ The original material on this page is the property of the creator of this website. It may be quoted or reproduced for educational purposes without permission, if appropriate credit is given by including the following statement: “This information is shared through the courtesy of Becky Collins, Park Forest Elementary School Library Web Site, State College, PA.” Last Modified on Sunday at 11:19 AM
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