Check It Out
by CARA WAITS
With the holidays coming up, that means holiday reading for everyone. Libraries lose a lot of money through lost, damaged or stolen materials and many times books cannot be replaced. Here are some book care tips to help keep library books in great condition:
Keep books away from water. Books don’t do well when splashed or immersed in water. Please do not expose books to the rain – use a plastic bag to cover them and place them in the book drop or wait until the library is open to return them.
Wash your hands before reading a book. Clean and dry hands help prevent damage to the pages.
Place books off the floor where pets and very young children won’t be able to get to them without supervision. Together with your child(ren), create a special place or bookshelf for borrowed library books. Watch for those for markers, pencils and crayons, too.
Use bookmarks to keep your place in a book. Turning down corners can wear and tear the pages of the book.
Take care in how the books are handled so that undue stress is not placed on the spine of the book. This can cause pages and entire sections of the book to become loose and lost.
Please be sure to return books, magazines, videotapes and DVDs when done with reading or viewing them. This allows others to enjoy these materials as well.
If you lose or damage an item, please call and speak with the librarian. The Kyle Public Library phone number is 268-7411.
We make every attempt to catch damaged library materials before they are placed on the shelf, but with so many books, videos and DVDs, it isn’t always possible to catch damaged items. Please help us by bringing it to our attention when you find such an item. Together, we can all help keep library materials pleasant for future readers to use.
Cara Waits is the Assistant Librarian at the Kyle Community Library.
