With Windham High School scheduled to hold its last day on June 13, librarian Donna Moreau said it can be a very frustrating time of year when kids dive headfirst into summer with forgotten backpacks that still contain school property.

“Unfortunately, there are books that get signed out that don’t come back,” she said. Moreau said the library loses a few hundred books each year.

Graduating seniors are not the biggest culprits, according to Moreau, who has worked at the library for the last 10 years. She said students who transfer to other schools or drop out are the biggest book snatchers.

She said the library is notified when a student withdraws from the school and checks to see if they have any books out. If so, they are sent a letter from the office asking that they return the literature. Moreau said this tactic is effective for the most part.

“Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t,” she said.

“My big concern is when students need the book, and its information, and it’s not here to use,” said Moreau. She said the impact is much bigger when the missing books are part of reading lists composed by teachers.

Another big problem, according to Moreau, is missing books that were never signed out. The electronic gate at the exit designed to catch books that haven’t been checked out hasn’t worked for four years, according to Moreau. She said it would cost about $3,000 to fix and it has been cut from her budget without explanation each year she submits it.

“Until we’ve done a total inventory, we don’t know what’s missing.” said Moreau. She said the money used to replace lost books could go toward expanding the library with new volumes.

“It might pay for itself in one year, two at the most,” she said.

Michael Duffy, chairman of the school board, said he had never heard about the faulty electronic gate before. He said the issue has not been brought up beyond the high school.

Principal Deb McAfee said the gate was damaged when the library moved. She said the library was set up in some spare classrooms a few years ago and the gate could not be installed. She said it would cost about $12,000 to replace the gate. She said she removed the gate from last year’s budget because the school “had an increase of 100 students” and couldn’t afford it.

Books1 & 2: Librarian Donna Moreau stands at the threshold to the Windham High School library where she says a few hundred books go out each year, never to return.Books1 & 2: Librarian Donna Moreau stands at the threshold to the Windham High School library where she says a few hundred books go out each year, never to return.