I know what you must be thinking: I am late to this party! If you complete a quick Internet search you find many, many posts from librarians who have been using self-checkout for years. I mean, years! So now I have to admit that I was not one of them. Until now!

Up until this school year, I had been working with preschool to second-grade students.  I was always under the mindset that self-checkout would be too difficult to manage with this age group. I was wrong! Additionally, I was concerned that I might upset the school community if checkout was not managed by me. Wrong again!

At the start of this school year, a new library space was created and my position changed. I now work with students in preschool through fourth grade. The third- and fourth-grade students were already using self-checkout in their old space, and I did not want to change that. I just had to figure out how it could work in our new library.

So I starting reading about other elementary librarians who used self-checkout with their students, especially in the younger grades. What I found was that there are many librarians who are doing this and doing it well!

Here are a few resources that were helpful to me:

• Confession: My Students Check Out Their Own Books
• Lodge’s Library Independent Check Out
• Self-Checkout: So Easy a 1st Grader Can Do It

Now that I have had an opportunity to try this out for the past three months I wished I would have started it sooner! Below are three things I love about self-checkout:

Time to Talk about Books

We use a hybrid schedule with first through fourth grade. The students come for a fifteen-minute scheduled checkout each week and all curriculum objectives are taught through collaborative lessons with the classroom teachers. This checkout time is short! Prior to this year, I basically sat at the circulation desk while students looked for books. I was not able to give much guidance to students, and that always bothered me.

This year I have time to talk to kids about the books they are reading. Give them suggestions and help them find them. Additionally, I have been able to start conferencing with students who are not checking out and find out why. This check-out time is more productive than it used to be, and I can really foster a love of reading.

They Know What They Have

Another positive is that my students are able to more effectively keep track of what they have checked out. As they check out something new the system shows them what else they have out. Instead of just their parents receiving an e-mail with overdue items, it makes them more responsible for their library materials. Since they can easily see what is missing, I am finding that books are returned quicker too.

Never a Line

Since I had two scanners available I was able to set up multiple self-checkout stations. This makes the process faster and the students spend less time waiting in line. This gives them more time to read or work at the library stations after check out.

How It Is Managed

I currently use self-checkout with second through fourth graders. I am hoping to introduce this to first graders toward the end of the school year as well. Each student has a library card with their name, picture, and bar code printed on it. This card is put on construction paper that is color-coded by grade level. The cards are separated by homeroom. Each homeroom class has its own container inside the drawer of the circulation desk. These containers are also color-coded by grade level. This way when the class arrives I can pull out their container and easily place their cards on the circulation desk.

When the student comes to check out a book they first scan the barcode on their card. They check to make sure that their name shows up in the catalog. Then they scan their books. Then they place their card in the class container. This makes it easy for me to see who has and has not checked out.

It is not a perfect system! There are times when the computer does something funky and I have to stop and fix it. I am sure there have been times when a student did not scan their books quite right or maybe at all, but the benefits outweigh the issues. Overall this has been one of the best changes I have made in my library so far this year!

Author: Kelly Hincks

I am the librarian at Detroit Country Day Lower School in Bloomfield Hills, MI. I have worked as a school librarian for the past eleven years. I was a classroom teacher for four years prior to that. I have worked in charter, public, and private schools. My favorite thing about being a school librarian is the opportunities I have to work both with students and teachers. I love the co-teaching opportunities and connections I have been able to make! I have served on AASL committees as a member and chair. I currently serve as secretary of my state association, Michigan Association of School Librarians (MASL).

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Categories: Blog Topics, Collection Development, Student Engagement/ Teaching Models

Tags: catalog, school librarian, Self-checkout, student leadership