At our library we do circulate puzzles. We assign the puzzle a number in our catalog and then on the back of each piece, we put that number on it in sharpie. This is in case we find a random puzzle piece on the floor, we know what puzzle it belongs to. We have the number of pieces in the puzzle on the marc record and also on the bag that the puzzle is housed in so the patrons can see how many pieces are in the bag. When a staff member goes to check it out or in, a message on the screen pops up saying "check for 25 pieces" or however many the puzzle has. If they do loose a piece, we will charge them full replacement costs since we obviously can't circ after that. Hope that helps and good luck! Our puzzles are pretty popular and it is a nice thing to offer to families. Amy Nolan Children's Librarian St. Joseph Public Library 269-983-7167 ________________________________ From: michlib-l-bounces@mcls.org [michlib-l-bounces@mcls.org] on behalf of Laura Orlowski [laura@camdenlibrary.org] Sent: Monday, October 13, 2014 12:16 PM To: MICHLIB-L Listserv Subject: [Michlib-l] Non-traditional circulating collections Hi all; My library is toying (sorry for the pun) with the idea of creating some non-traditional circulating collections (such as puzzles, board games, puppets, backpack sets,etc.) If your library has collections like these already in circulation, could you share your thoughts? In particular, here are a couple questions we have: 1. Puzzles/games - How do you check for missing pieces? If they come back with missing pieces, do you charge a fee? 2. Puppets - How do you sanitize/clean after circulating? We would appreciate any thoughts and comments on non-traditional circulating collections. Thanks, -Laura Orlowski, director Camden Twp. Library camden@monroe.lib.mi.us<mailto:camden@monroe.lib.mi.us>