We have a member who continually returns books that are damaged. Our pastor wants me to put an announcement in the church bulletin to address this matter. Has anyone had to do this? I am at a loss to tactfully say that these books cost money and you don't need to abuse them.
Help!
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We had a lady who loved to read her checked out library books while relaxing in the tub. She dropped the book in the water and ruined it. She gladly paid for a replacement. Several weeks later she was once again soaking in the tub reading a library book and you guessed it, she dropped the book in the water. She was so embarrassed but once again gladly paid for the damaged book. Well, third times the charm. She dropped another library book in the tub. She was horrified and paid for it again but her embarrassment was so great she never came back to the library. I appreciated her willingness to pay for the damaged books and hated that she no longer felt like she could come to the library. Perhaps the better option would have been to just give up tub reading.
Thank you for your reply. I'm sure the damage to the books is not intentional, just careless. This time, it looks like coffee or something was spilled on it. The pages toward the end were curled and nasty. Once before, she brought one that the cover was so faded you could barely see the title. It looked like she left it on the dash of her car for weeks and the sun bleached it.
I have an announcement in this Sunday's bulletin addressing the care of our library books. We are in hopes that the person will do the right thing and pay to replace the book. Our pastor wanted to give her the opportunity to make it right without being confronted individually. We will see, but since this is a repeated occurrence, we may have to talk to her directly.
Thank you for your insight.