How Many Books Can I Check Out?

Walk into any library, whether school or public, and you are likely to get different answers to this age-old library question:

How many books can I check out?

What I hope and what you are likely to hope as well, is that there is some rhyme or reason to the answer. However, rarely is that the case. Rather some arbitrary number of book checkouts, often as little as one or two, has been the rule since the dawn of time. 

For me, the goal of increasing the number of checkouts possible is to increase the school or library’s overall circulation as well as the number of books being read. Artificial barriers (like only being able to checkout one book every two weeks) get in the way of increasing circulation and, importantly, books in the hands of students.

Some librarians will say that they don’t want students to check out too many books because they are concerned about loss. I get the point; some of us have very small or no budgets. I would ask you to decide now whether you are a librarian or a warehouse manager. Both important jobs but with very different goals and outcomes.

My first rule of book checkouts is that the goal of checkouts should be to support student reading. If you have students coming to your library every two weeks and only getting a book or two, you are doing two things:

1. Making sure that circulation never goes up; and
2. Making sure that students don’t get enough books to read.

There could be other ways to increase checkouts. For example, if students are coming to the library every two weeks, change that to once a week. If that is not possible, consider adding the ability to check out books before school, at lunch, and/or after school. Change things up in ways that benefit students, teachers, and families.

As you consider changing the checkout number, every library is indeed different. Some libraries can certainly allow for unlimited checkouts because they have so many books and so few patrons. They are the oddity. You need to determine the number that works for your number of students and the programs offered at your school.

Some things to consider in finding your number:

1. How often do students come for checkouts?
2. Does the district have a rule? Does that rule work for our school?
3. How can I get more books in the hands of students if we cannot change that number?
4. What does my principal think about the current policy?

I think that most libraries can and should evaluate their checkout policy. Further, I think that most libraries could double their current policy and not have it affect anything long-term.

It’s usually a good idea to keep your principal in the loop. Don’t be surprised if they do not know the current policy. Keeping them in the loop can be helpful if you do have to replace a larger number of books this year than you have in the past (and you well may; get past it!).

If the policy is set in stone and it is not possible for you to change, this is when you institute that librarian creativity. Most policies, for example, don’t say how often students can check out books. Build upon that!

Finally, here’s a couple of questions for you: How many books do you allow students to check out? How do you know that is the right number?