Ken has long teased me that I’m funding a new wing at the library through my overdue fees. When Reid was born, I vowed to straighten up and fly right. There’s nothing to highlight your faults and bad habbits than thinking of passing them on to your kids. I’ve made that vow before, usually after a period of tracking where each penny goes, with mixed success. The city libraries tries to be helpful and provide a printout of the titles and the due dates of the books that you are signing out. My problem is that I visit the library several times a week and often go to different branches. I’ve learned 4 good ways to cut down on the overdue books:
1. Ask for a printout of *all* books we have signed out, rather than just the newest acquisitions as the default is. (Thanks, Melissa for telling me about this.)
2. Go to the library’s website to view what books are due when. They list the soonest due first for ease of figuring out which ones to hunt for first.
3. Online renewal is always an option, even if you’ve finished the book but can’t put your hands on it. Beware of relying on this, though, since you can’t renew if someone else has requested the item.
4. Those special, sturdy, brightly-coloured library bags that the friends of the library sell are really worth the expense.  We use many cloth bags each week for many different things. Reserving the bright blue ones for library books helps to locate them. We still have to be vigilant about putting the books back into the bags, of course.

So, these are the things that work for me this Wednesday. For more tips, visit [1] Rocks in My Dryer.