We're responsible for your library book?

[ArcticChicken]

Of course, this begs teh question of why they brought a library book to a bookstore?!?!?!

Well, in my case, the library is right by the bookstore, and I'll often stop in to see if there's anything brand new by my favorite authors. That, and I carry a book with me almost every where I go.

But, we thought we returned it! (I checked and it's not on our shelves.)

That's actually happened to me three or four times, but then again, I borrow books a lot, so it's bound to happen to me more often. Most of the time though, it means I need to check my room again. Luckily the local librarians almost always offer to renew it for me so that I don't rack up too steep a fine. Probably has something to do with the fact that I don't argue about my fines.

I've had that happen occasionally, mostly with interlibrary loans. Which means I can wait for several weeks while the book makes its way across state and gets checked in at home. And even then, I had to argue one time to get the fines lifted.

That sucks. I'm now especially grateful that my local ILL takes them off my account the minute the hit the ILL desk.

[Difdi]

But, finding the item on the shelf is not what usually happens. And after I check the shelves and return to the patron empty-handed, then they go, oh, wait ... maybe I didn't return THAT one. *sigh* I will then print out the information and advise them to check at home and to contact me at the library if they DON'T find it. Depending on the situation (and their attitude), I can always change the item's status to Claim Returned. They usually never call me, and the item usually shows up in the overnight book drop the next morning.

I'll also admit to this little problem. But in my defense, the local library has a category of uncatalogued book they call "Paperback Picks" that is identified in their computer system by barcode number and nothing else. Makes it a bit tricky to figure out at a glance which books are due when.

[depechemodefan]

It happens a lot in our library that people say they returned a book and it's on our shelves. We usually will tell the patron that the best thing to do is always ask for a receipt when they return books.

But I was leery about this one woman who said that she returned some books and they are still on her account. Now this was back when the library was closed for renovations and we were operating out of the old building. She wanted to go to the closed building to look for the books on the shelves, I said she couldn't. She said that this was always happening to her, and that when she goes to the shelves she finds the books. I told her she should always wait for the books to be checked in and get a receipt to make sure that the books get checked in. Since this is happening "all the time" I'm imagining that she forgets to return books, so she comes to the library with the late books in her bag, goes up to where the books should be on the shelf (or maybe just the floor) and comes back down and claims she finds the books on the shelf.

Though honestly I do see that there are times books don't get checked in. Like when people just dump tons of books on the desk and as the LA makes piles, maybe one pile doesn't get checked in.

actually, it happened to me before where I turned in books and they get placed on the shelf without being checked in. I go to the Circ. people and tell them and they do a "claimed returned", even when I show them the book on the shelf. Sad thing is that I work here. So now I just check out stuff to myself and return them on my own computer at work.