The library is a great place to get access to books that you will read for a short time and do not want to buy. This goes for both adults and children. However, once you bring the library books home they have a tendency to get mixed in with your other books. Many people spend more time looking for overdue library books then they spend actually reading the books. Additionally, the late fees may be more then the book may have cost used on Amazon.
Can you find the library book?
The reason that it is hard to find a library book in your house is because it is difficult to tell the difference between a library books and your own books. This is especially true when you are cleaning up after children. Most library books have a small white sticker on the spine with the call numbers. Hardly something that jumps out. When you are looking for a particular overdue book, you do not want to look for a small white sticker just to find the missing book.
Instead, libraries should use a better visual system to identify their books. One method would be transparent neon tape that is applied to the plastic cover that most library books have. Another solution would be to paint the fore-edge (that is the edge of the pages opposite the spine, I had to look it up) a bright color.
The bright orange tape makes the library book stand out.
This way, instead of having to actively look for a missing library book, the book itself would stand out. Whenever you see a pile of books your eye, would automatically see the library books and you would place these books in a special place. Then you could always find the books when you are ready to read them or return them.
By increasing the visibility of library books, libraries would make it easier for people to find books at home reducing the number of late returns and reducing fines that people have to pay. Then again, maybe libraries don’t mind if you return books late.
1 comment:
Libraries love late book/ materials fees. This is a great idea yet this puts the responsibility for lost and late materials on the lending institution rather than the patron. Although if you look at pay for use parking garages, they often assist the patron by providing a color coding and a letter or number to assist in finding your car... even though this clearly is not in the interest of them making money on the time that your car is parked in the garage. Perhaps an easy solution could be to designate an area of the "personal home library" for Library Books so that they do not get mixed in with the personal collection and build up late fees or get "lost".
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