Updated: 9/6/2024 by K. Smith

Teacher Cards 

Teacher cards were introduced to facilitate getting books into the hands of children and provide materials to teachers that support their curriculum.  Teachers should also have a non-TEACHER-profile card for their personal library use. 

Any WALS library can choose to use the teacher card profile to issue a card to a teacher, day care provider, or home-schooler. Here are instructions for entering Teacher cards into WorkFlows.

WALS libraries have agreed teachers may only have 1 TEACHER profile card, and that all teachers using this card will have the same basic settings.  These settings apply to checkouts at any WALS library.  The simplified approach makes it easier for teachers regardless of which library or libraries they use.

Libraries are expected to address problems with delayed return of materials or other abuses by having conversations with the teacher. Uncorrected abuses will result in cancellation of the card by the library.

System-wide policy settings for the user profile of TEACHER:

• Charge Limit: 150 items
• Hold Limit:  50 items
• Overdue Threshold: 50 items
• Bill Threshold:  $250
• Billable for lost material:   Yes
• Holds can be placed for the teacher card.
• The TEACHER profile is fine exempt.
• Loan Periods: 7 Days for DVDs. 28 days with 2 renewals for everything else. 
• Not allowed to checkout SHORTLOAN materials

The services the library provides to teachers is separate from the basic privileges granted by the Teacher Cards. Each library can determine the level of service provided to teachers. For example, some libraries pull collections and check things out in advance to speed pick up. Other libraries deliver materials.

Library Specific Options:

• Without exceeding the system-wide settings, the loaning library decides what and how much may be checked out on the card at that library.  For example, a library may decide that Teachers may only checkout 30 items at a time. Tracking these customizations is the responsibility of the loaning library.
• Overrides can be used to reduce or extend the loan period at checkout depending on the type of material or the policy of the individual library. Libraries must not exceed the system-wide settings on materials coming from other libraries without permission of the owning library. i.e. a library may not extend the due date or provide an extra renewal on materials that are not their own. 

 

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Deposit Sites

Some libraries also provide deposit collections to day care centers or nursing homes.   These same rules apply to sites serving any age group.

The rules for any user with the profile of DEPOSIT are:

• Charge Limit: 150 items
• Hold Limit:  50 items
• Overdue Threshold: 50 Items
• Bill Threshold:  $500
• Billable for unreturned items: Yes
• Holds can be placed for the deposit collection account.
• The DEPOSIT profile is fine exempt.
• Loan Period: 60 days.

​Overrides can be used to reduce or extend the loan period at checkout depending on the type of material.