Policies & Rules

The K-8 Libraries are open and available to all students, staff, administration and faculty of their respective schools .

Borrowing materials

• Books may be borrowed from the school libraries free of charge by any student, faculty or staff member,  or administrator of that school. 

• Since books are shared with all students and other library users, it is the borrower's responsibility to take care of and return any borrowed books just as they would for anything that they may own and let someone else borrow. 

• Books must be returned in the same condition that they were borrowed. No stickers or dust jackets may be removed. If pages fall out or barcode stickers come off, please keep them with the book and inform the librarian when the book is returned.

• Books may be borrowed from the library for periods of two weeks.

• Any borrowed material must be checked out to a patron (student, faculty, staff, etc.) by the librarian, volunteer or other library worker before it taken out of the library. 

• Aside from the most popular material, checked out books may be renewed for another two weeks. Additional time may be granted based on research or other academic need. The ability of renew popular material with limited copies may be restricted based on the judgement of the librarian.

• Borrowing limits are: 1 book for students in Kindergarten, 2 books for students in grades 1 through 7 and 3 books for students in 8th grade.  Students who have reached their borrowing limit may not borrow more books until they have returned the books they already have out

• Faculty, staff and administration will have higher limits as warranted based on need.

• Borrowers who damage or fail to return books will be expected to replace the material. The librarian shall make final determination on what form the replacement will be. 

• Borrowers who intentionally, maliciously or repeatedly damage or fail to return material will be subject to having their borrowing privileges revoked.

• Since the K-8 libraries serve such a wide range of ages, some material may have content that is not suitable for all students. Material with the YA (Young Adult) label are limited to students in the 5-8 grades, with some books further restricted to grades 7 and 8.  Younger students may check out restricted material with the permission of their teacher and/or parents or guardians.

Donation of materials

The Malden Public School K-8 Libraries greatly appreciates the desire of faculty, staff and parents to donate books for student use to the libraries. However, due to limited space and time constraints for cataloging and processing material, not all material can be accepted. If you wish to donate material, please follow these guidelines

• Donated books should be in new or like new condition with no tears, writing or other damage.

• If possible, please check out our wish lists when they are available.

• Donated picture books or early readers should be hardcovers. Paperback chapter books are welcome if they are in excellent condition.

• Donated books should be recently published, especially for non-fiction. For example, it is best for science books to be less than 5 years old and should be no more than 10 years old.

• Popular series books (Captain Underpants, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Dork Diaries, etc) and age appropriate graphic novels, manga, and published comic strip collections are especially welcome.

Again, while we greatly appreciate the desire to donate material, we cannot accept

• Encyclopedias

• Textbooks

• Workbooks or other classroom material

• Magazines

• Outdated or irrelevant fiction

• Video or audio cassettes