Ability to turn off student check-in of books

95 votes

Since I teach older students, I would like the ability to turn off their capability to check a book back in to the class library. Students have "checked in" books through booksource, but in reality, never physically returned it due to damage, loss, etc. I would like the ability to turn off this function for them so that books must be checked back in through me.

Planned Suggested by: Emily Shurtleff (02 Oct, '19) • Upvoted: 19 Jul, '23 • Comments: 25

Comments: 25

02 Oct, '19
Bailey S
I agree this can be troublesome. I'd like students to be able to write reviews, but I'd like to be able to manage "inventory."
03 Oct, '19
Alyssa
This is my first year using this platform. I love it, bu t lack of this feature might be the reason I don't use this in my classroom next year. I can manage better with Google Forms at this point.
24 Oct, '19
chris
I like this, but I would like to take it a step further for my purposes. My students use a scanner, so I would like there to be a requirement for them to scan it back in, not just a button to push. Therefore, a book cannot be checked back in without physically being here to turn in.
02 Nov, '19
Brandy
Like Chris, I think requiring the book to be scanned back in would be FABULOUS!!
06 Nov, '19
Meline
I am exactly where Alyssa is at. I loved this platform until I figured out that I can't give students access to ANY feature because I cannot turn off their ability to check in a book. If I was OK with the honor system, I wouldn't have needed software in the first place. If this is not resolved over summer, I will have to move on to a new system.
07 Nov, '19
Sean Patterson Admin
Thank you everyone for your comments. To be clear, you still want the students to be able to check out books through the platform, just not check them back in, right? This would mean that you, the teacher, would have to return all books on behalf of the students. Is this what everyone has in mind?
07 Nov, '19
Emily Shurtleff
Sean, yes. And I would still want them to have access to writing a review for the books they read as well.
07 Nov, '19
Sean Patterson Admin
So could this work where students can still "check in" books but they won't really be checked in until you, the teacher, approves it?
08 Nov, '19
Emily Shurtleff
If I could still check books in myself - or have any student checked-in books require my approval before the were officially checked into the system, then that would work for me. It would still be nicer/more convenient to just be able to remove that option for them - I realize this may be a technological headache on your end though...
04 Mar, '20
Akashian
Actually, I want to control both the check out and the check in. However, if the software could be flexible enough to just let us turn on and off those functions, that would be great.
04 Mar, '20
Chris
I would still like my students to have the ability to check in and out on their own.
BUT
I would like a requirement for them to physically scan a book back in. Having them just click a return button is too easy for them to pretend that they actually returned the book.

I can understand that some would like to control this by requiring the teacher to check it in. I personally don't have the time to keep up with it.
Hopefully, this is a feature that can easily be toggled on or off.
18 May, '20
Kimberly
We would also like this feature. We have students K - 8 using this system, and our main issue is that once a book is "checked in" other students can check it out--but we have not yet reshelved the books. So we were hoping "checked in" books would go to a list of books to be reshelved. That way whoever's doing library duty can check each returned book, put it on the shelf, and mark it somehow.. I'm not sure how this would work.
19 May, '20
Sean Patterson Admin
Hi Kimberly,

Perhaps we could just show a list of checked in books and have a secondary option to mark them as "available" or "reshelved"?
29 May, '20
Kimberly
Sean, that would actually be extremely helpful. We need to check through all our returned books before we reshelf them--can they be made unavailable until they are marked as reshelved?
10 Aug, '20
Sara Behnke
I would like to see the "check-in/return" feature for students disabled as well. I would like for only someone with teacher login to be able to mark books returned so that I actually know they are returned.
26 Aug, '20
Carolyn
I was searching all over for a place to disable the check-in for the same reasons others have said. I would like to be the one to check the book in so I know it's been returned and I can see the condition in which it was returned. Students being able to hit "returned" without having to physically return the book means my library will dwindle in a hurry.
09 Sep, '20
Rebecca L Meyer-Larson
I would like to be the one to return books so I can ensure that they are truly checked in. I don't want to lose books.
10 Sep, '20
Kristin
I would love to have some sort of safeguard like this to prevent students from not physically returning books!
03 Oct, '20
Sandra
I am currently checking the books in via my phone app, but would love to be able to scan the books back in. I also want the students to then be able to write reviews for the books they have read, after they have been checked in . I do not know if this is an option now. I have not had any students do reviews as I have just started using.
14 Oct, '20
Tina
I would LOVE for this to happen. I currently don't give my students access to the platform for this very reason!!!! It would be especially helpful in the remote setting. The way it is now I won't get many of my books back.
21 Oct, '20
Jaymi Merged
Could you please allow only teachers to return books after checking out? I'd like it if students weren't able to return on the app but physically return it to the teachers and the teachers mark return once returned.
22 Oct, '20
Sean Patterson Admin
"Disable student ability to return books" (suggested by Jaymi on 2020-10-21), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.
11 Nov, '20
Jamie
This would be great! I do not let students return the books themselves because I can't trust that they actually do return it or that it's in good shape, so they have to physically hand me the book. I would love for them to be able to check out and not be able to check back in with me seeing it.
12 Nov, '20
Kim
Having the ability to turn off the Return Books option for Students would greatly improve the functionality of this program. I would say it's my top rated upgrade need. Thank you!
24 Mar, '21
Corey
Has this gone anywhere? Very interested in having the option for students to return books disabled. It would be a tremendous help echoing a comment earlier about students returning books on the site but not physically returning them. Despite constant reminders, they still return books on their own which makes tracking which books are where extremely difficult.