[Publib] "Teacher Loan Cards"

[Judith Turner]

If there is enough demand to merit creating a special category,  it would be more appropriate for the library to enter into a formal arrangement with the local school district(s) -- public, charter and private.  

This contract should specify what services the library will provide, whose responsibility it is to replace lost/damaged items and how this will be handled, also pick up and return of materials, lead time, loan periods and renewals, etc.  

It does not sound like the teachers are borrowing books for their personal convenience as one reply seemed to suggest. They are borrowing them for the students they teach, much like libraries use ILL to get books for their patrons.  

If there isn't enough demand to justify involving lawyers and boards and drawing up a formal contract between library and district, then use the sort of card that libraries offer businesses and organizations in their community as a model.  The Milwaukee Public Library offers a card through its Business Information Services Division.  This type of card is popular with local companies and non-profits, it's great outreach to a population that's often hard to get into the library otherwise and has been a source of much positive PR for the library.  In some places the corporate librarian uses the card to borrow materials for employees; at MPM sometimes a librarian would use it to get the material (usually when photocopying was involved); if the items were part of the Central Library's circulating collection, we'd keep track of which employee had used it and  the due dates for items checked out. 

Some of the comments posted parallel those made a few months ago about teachers making assignments and sending their students to the library without warning.  In that case, librarians were trying to find ways to deal with many students and some parents all clamoring for the same few resources.  

School library/media centers have been victims of spiraling school costs across the nation and viewing teachers who are struggling to fill in for that loss as adversaries is a lose/lose situation.

Funding for the service to schools could come from a mix of sources -- the school district, the local municipality, state support, private foundations and other grants.

 
Judy Turner
Whitefish Bay, WI


 
       
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