By Shannon Wilkinson

Staff Writer

If you look under your bed or maybe in your locker, you may see a few books that do not belong to you. Look at them a little closer and you will see that these books more than likely belong to the Coppell High School library.

This year, the library has noticed a increased problem in the amount of overdue or lost books.

“This year the amount of overdue books was ridiculous. When [librarian assistant Veena Bhat] was running the list for overdue books, it was 62 pages long,” CHS librarian Lex Anne Seifert said.

The current system has students receiving an e-mail to their school account overdue book. The new system places an automated phone call to the student’s home regarding overdue books.

“What we are finding is that a lot of kids do not check their school e-mails, so that has been affective in some incidences for the kids that don’t check their school emails, they’re probably the ones who have overdue books,” Seifert said.

If a book has been overdue longer than three months, the library’s system pronounces that the book is then lost and it generates a fine. If the student turns in the book, they will not be required to pay the fine.

“We do not want to charge fines because we are not in the business of charging fines,” Seifret said. “We are in the business of making sure that our books circulate and are available for everybody.”

The library used to locate students according to their English classes to collect overdue books. They are no longer using that system.

“If kids leave this school year with overdue accounts and they are freshman, sophomores or juniors, when they come back to pick up their schedule, they will not get a schedule until they clear their library record,” Seifert said. “If seniors do not clear their library records, when they come to pick up their graduation packet after graduation, they will not get it until they clear their library records.”