How to Conduct a School Library Inventory

As a school librarian, you may dread the inventory process. You may have heard it is a hassle, and you find that you are not quite sure how to do it. Perform inventories at the end of each school year in order to assess which books exist in the library, record those books with damage, or lost, and then identify weaknesses in collection.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Read the shelves. Preferably, with several assistants, critically scan the shelves. Return all mis-shelved books to their proper places. This makes a seamless inventory process.

2. Discard outdated books. There is no use inventorying unused books. You can weed out books in conjunction with shelf reading. Remember to remove the records of weeded books from your electronic card catalog so that you do not count those books in the library's holdings.

3. Scan each book in the library using a handheld barcode reader. Scan the books in order, starting with the 000s and ending with the 999s. Scan fiction and other holdings in alphabetical order. Scanning books in their progressive order simplifies reporting at inventory's end.

4. Upload the scanned information into your electronic circulation system. Your system has various reports that you can generate such as lost books and books that are mis-shelved. Since you did a shelf read and reorganization before taking inventory, it is a cinch to correctly shelve those books that were in the wrong spot. Note lost books, and use proper discard procedures.

Tips & Warnings

• Do not let users check out books while you are doing an inventory. If library patrons return books during an inventory, check them in and keep them on a separate cart until you complete the inventory. Do not return them to their shelves during the inventory process.

[library-cari]

on 2/22/2009 If you don't have a handheld scanner, you can place a laptop on a cart, and attach your regular barcode scanner to the laptop. Then wheel around the library scanning barcodes directly into your library inventory and circulation program.