Storing library books

[lasulliva]

Every week, at least one library books goes missing, necessitating a house-wide hunt. I'm trying to keep the level to around 20 kid books, but at times we've had more like 50, depending on kid interests. Nominally, we store them on top of the TV stand, but they end up on the living room chairs, at the kitchen table, next to their beds, in the car, etc. I'm trying to enforce that they get put back at the end of the night, but somehow one always gets forgotten somewhere. I'd love some tips on how other people keep track of their library books, and if they have if rules about when/where they're put back.

[forty-two]

I keep a full bookcase shelf reserved for library books - it's our "library shelf".  (Actually, we have two library shelves, one for kid books and one for my books.)  All library books live on the library shelf.  When the kids were littler, I was really strict about making sure all library books were put back immediately after use, but now that they are older (and unattended books don't tend to get lost under furniture anymore), we have a daily clean-up time and any library books laying around get put away then.  I've found that having a dedicated library shelf works so much better than any other kind of library book spot - it's easier and more convenient get books out and put them back, and the books stay neater, plus it piggybacks on the same "book picking up and storing" habits they have for all other books.

Eta: At your kids' ages, I picked up any unattended library book I saw and put it away immediately (or called for the relevant child to put it away while I watched).  Waiting till evening clean-up time was too late.  Whenever I saw them get up from reading library books, I reminded them to go put those books right away.  But there was a lot of me just constantly grabbing unattended library books throughout the day, every time I saw one out.  

Edited September 11, 2019 by forty-two

[Lecka]

I have ended up with a fabric bag.  One book per kid can be out of the fabric bag.  My bag is like a big beach bag, it does hold a lot of books.  I don't know why, but it seems to work better than a shelf, because I can carry the bag around from room to room, and if a child wants the bag in his/her room, then I can just take the bag in there.  It also lets me avoid having a ton of library books in my living room, which does turn out to make my living room look a little nicer!  The library bag is in there a lot of the time, but it doesn't "have" to live there.  

[wathe]

We have a bin.  Each kid may have one "active" book that can leave the bin and be stored where convenient to the reader (usually a bedside table), but they are responsible for keeping track of it.  Only one active book at a time.  The bin acts as a little personal library branch with a lending limit of one book.  It works well for us

[Noreen Claire]

I keep my library books either in my desk or in top of a bookshelf. Books checked out for school are on the top shelves of the school bookshelf. We have two baskets next to each other in the living room for the kids to keep their library books, one for picture books and one for smaller books. Books are scattered *everywhere* in my house. If someone (usually just DS10) takes a book into the car, it needs to come back out when we get home. Other than that, we have no real rules about how many books someone can have at a time, they all usually just end up in 'the library box'.

FWIW, we currently have 120+ books checked out. We have lost only one book in recent memory, and it turned up under a couch after I paid for it. (We did pay for two other books this year, after an unfortunate bout of car sickness and a water mishap.)