A trial run of BooksApp on my iPhone.
I recently searched my office bookshelves for two books I want to use this fall in a course. I know I owned them. I remember buying them in grad school. Then it hit me: I loaned them both to a student, and they haven’t been seen since.
After placing a quick Amazon order for replacements (sigh), I realized I needed a better system for lending books to students. I asked the Twitterverse for ideas. Here are some of the suggestions I received from those who have more wisely addressed the problem for their own libraries.
- On the low-tech end of the spectrum, Janni Aragon (@janniaragon) suggested holding a student’s grade hostage – well, those are my terms, not hers. Her system is simple: she keeps a list of items checked out by students and tells them she will not post a grade until the books and/or articles are returned.
- Similarly, Brad King (@Brad_King) keeps a collection of notecards documenting items students have checked out, and gives them a failing grade in his course if they don’t return his stuff. (These are great solutions for students in your courses, but I often work with students I am not currently teaching in a course, so they’re a bit more…elusive.)
- For a short-term loan – say, a student needs to make a copy of an article or book chapter - Katie Johnson‘s (@KatieAJohnson) solution is terrific: have the student leave a piece of collateral behind, such as a phone or iPad. (I might run away with the iPad, though.)
- Matt Thomas (@mattthomas) recommended a piece of Mac software called Books. It’s free and looks pretty snazzy. It appears to be transitioning into a new product called Codex that will also track a book collection. However, even Codex is now on hold, as its developer notes that iTunes may soon feature a book cataloging utility (maybe part of iBooks?).
- Dave Childers suggests another software solution called Delicious Library, also for Macs. This software uses your webcam to recognize and catalog your books – and all sorts of other items you want to document in your office or household. You can even attach an item to a friend’s Address Book record to track who has been loaned what. It also interfaces with an iPhone or iPod, creates bibliographies (including in APA style!), and has a lot of other cool features. It does cost $40, but for a comprehensive solution, this looks to be a great option.
- Finally, because I am rarely away from my iPhone, I also looked for an app solution. I found one called BooksApp that costs $1.99 and scans barcodes on books to record them into the library. It does track lending of books. My first attempt at cataloging with it went well; the barcode scanner is a little finicky, but works, and it’s a lot easier than typing ISBNs into the phone.
Any other suggestions for low- or high-tech solutions to this problem? Please share in the comments.
