Managing Your Library Books and Fines

We are big fans of the public library system. We are avid readers and books can be pricey unless you go to the library. All the books you could ever want to read are available for you to read and enjoy. For free, unless, you aren’t managing your library books and fines properly.

Managing Your Library Books and Fines

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Homeschoolers tend to have quite the impressive home library but you can’t buy, and store all the books, which makes homeschoolers faithful library patrons as well. No matter the curriculum you choose, you are always going to be looking for more books, more information on any given topic.

According to my check out receipt from our latest trip to the library so far this year I have saved $2,164.17 by using the library. It’s only the middle of February.

Keep Fines at Bay with A Designated Book Spot

Prevent lost books by keeping them stored in one spot. I started this a couple years ago and it has saved us. One bookshelf is only for library books. We have cut back on the lost books this way too. I’m not stuck spending hours turning the house upside down looking for a book.

For awhile we used a cube organizer to do the job, each child had their own cube for their books, but with rearranging and listing our home, we have switched things up a bit.

Using a library bag to bring your books home in as your way to keep all your books together in one spot might work well too, as long as you only use that bag for trips to the library. This bag is super cute, and obviously a library bag:

Sign Up for Alerts

Our library gives you the option of email notifications or text messages. I signed up for text messages. I am not great at checking my personal email often, so those reminders to my phone save us on fines.

It also alerts us to when our requests have arrived. These days make us very happy!

One Library Card

My two girls both have library cards, but I don’t let them use them. Why? Because it makes it a lot harder to keep track of the books and the books that are due back. That then results in library fines. Now we only use one card for the whole family.

We have a check out limit of 100 items, we have reached it a few times. This helps keep us from getting too many books and losing them as well.