Keeping track of library books-please help!

amother

Slategray

Wed, May 11 2016, 7:28 am

Do any of you have a system that actually works to keep track of library books? When we come home from the library I encourage each kid to keep "their" books in their room but after a few days they end up all over the house and when it comes time to return them a bunch of them are missing. I'm ending up with mounting overdue charges Rolling Eyes

please help with any advice!

UnFarvosNischt

Wed, May 11 2016, 7:36 am

Take a pic of the books on your way out of the library and put a reminder on your phone 3 days before you're supposed to give them back!
Actually my library prints out a receipt with a list of the lended books, I put it on the fridge with a magnet et voila Smile

(but it's a snobby library so it won't work everywhere else)

thanks

Wed, May 11 2016, 7:40 am

As soon as you checkout the books, put a reminder in your phone three days before the books are due. You can also put in the number of books each child took out, or keep the receipt from the library.

Maya

Wed, May 11 2016, 7:42 am

We keep all our books in a big canvas bag, and the kids know to put the books back there after they read them.
Perhaps you can have multiple small bags, one for each child.

Also, keep the receipt after each time you check out so you can see which books are in the bag and which are not. Alternatively, check online.

m in Israel

Wed, May 11 2016, 8:23 am

Like Maya said, I think the key is having a specific place that library books go. When I was growing up we had a little shelf near the stereo that was for library books. If we saw a library book lying around somewhere it went straight to the shelf. And when you finished reading one that's were it went. If each kid is taking their books to their own rooms it is much harder to keep track of them (and if you see a book lying around you may not even know which room to send it to).

yo'ma

Wed, May 11 2016, 8:31 am

We don't have a library Sad

, but when we did, I was a little OCD and a monster Twisted Evil

with making sure they didn't get lost. I also didn't get too many at a time. Maya had a good idea to have a designated place for them.

mommy3b2c

Wed, May 11 2016, 8:38 am

Maya wrote:

We do the same, except its a canvas box, not a bag. I keep the receipt with the list of books in my wallet and double check before I return.

MMCH

Wed, May 11 2016, 8:53 am

Im starting to hate taking out library books more and more becuase of this problem in my house.
I dont want to tell you what I paid already to the library for lost books. embarrassed

but we are slowly working on it..
my library has a very specific color bag, I bring home 3 every time I go. I put one in my girls room, one in my boys room, one in my room. I hang it on the doorknob to their closet.

I remind my children over and over that the books MUST be in that bag.

thunderstorm

Wed, May 11 2016, 9:19 am

My kids sleep two per room and they each have a small table in their rooms, they know that the books they choose need to be put back there when they are done. Of course they read them all over the house but they know that I'm strict about it. I also keep the receipt that the library prints out when I check out....before I go back , I review the books and the receipt and make sure that all of the books are in my bag. I also tell my kids the books are due a week BEFORE they are due, so that way they dont end up being late

ImaLAEma

Wed, May 11 2016, 1:10 pm

I also have a central place for library books - dishpans on a shelf in the hallway. It works pretty well. I also set up library alerts so I get emails a few days before the books are due and I mark it on my google calendar which also sends me alerts. I haven't had a lost book in a long time. We do sometimes have overdue charges, but I see it as a cost of reading - and it's MUCH less than buying the hundreds of books our family reads a year!

PinkFridge

Wed, May 11 2016, 3:24 pm

No chidush here, sounds like others have similar systems. When I would check the books out, I'd put them in alphabetical order of the author so the receipt would come out alphabetically. I then stapled or taped it into a notebook. Something this important and crucial to our mental health, I was efficient about. (Before receipt printouts I'd write down the books and date, also in abc order to make collecting them easier.)

Now I can check my account online, and get email reminders 2 days before they're due so if I can't find them/get to the library on time I can renew them. But I remember the days, especially when summer library programs were great and I was running camp mommy that we'd go to a few different libraries a week. We occasionally had fines but did pretty well on the whole.

ETA: I realized I didn't fully address the OP. We had a shelf for library books that was high enough for the babies not to reach, some kids would keep books in their rooms on a certain shelf, and I kept my library stuff, including the notebook, in a backpack in my room.

Last edited by PinkFridge on Thu, May 12 2016, 8:53 am; edited 1 time in total

rainbow dash

Wed, May 11 2016, 4:59 pm

Wow I thought we were the only ones,with this problem. We ended up buying a new comic book for the library cause we lost it. My kids take out comics even though we already have 100s. And,dvds. Bh the library ones have a barcode on the front. Definitely going to start implementing these ideas

gp2.0

Wed, May 11 2016, 5:07 pm

Every room in the house where we read has a small bookshelf for books. The kids room, my room, the dinette. In the entryway I keep a canvas bin in the coat closet for books I want to return.

amother

Slategray

Thu, May 12 2016, 12:13 am

OP here. Thank you so much for all of the helpful replies. I've also had to pay for "lost" library books embarrassed

Hopefully a centralized book bin + reminders in my phone will help get things on track!