Georg,

I used to work in a law firm where we had a similar problem - the
library was staffed from 9.30 - 5.30 BUT we had sub-libraries around
the firm (unstaffed) and lawyers working 24 hours.

One of our big problems was that WHEN people actually did sign for the
books they would then be borrowed by someone else so that you ended
up chasing halfway round the firm for "a tall chap with brown hair -
think he's in the company department - can't remember his name" who
borrowed it from someone who borrowed it from someone who borrowed it
from the person who signed the card!

I am sorry to have to tell you but there is no actual perfect
solution that we found. We tried to keep it (almost) manageable by
the following:

a) Big notices on all the doors on brightly coloured paper (changing
the colour regularly - red is quite effective but they get immune to
that after a while) saying "STOP! Have you signed for your books?"
and using a symbol of a stop sign or raised hand. Other notices all
around the shelves in random positions - changing the positions /
colours of the signs occasionally can help too.

b) All firm e-mails looking for specific items needed
urgently. Occasionally summarizing these emails with an email that
says "In the last 2 months we have sent x number of emails about
unsigned items. This wastes everybody's time so please remember to
sign for any item you borrow." Adding in suitably harsh words of
disgust depending on the ethos of where you work!

c) Regular all firm e-mails reminding people to return items they
have finished with and where to put them (in the nicest way!).

d) Occasional book raids where you go to each office and ask (1)
"Have you any library books you are no longer using?" (in which case
grab them!) and (2) "What other library books do you have that you
are still using?" (taking a note of these to make sure they are all
signed for correctly). Actually we often found if we sent an email
around saying that we would be doing a bookraid on a certain day we
would be inundated with returned books before then - appearing
anonymously all around the building!

If you can get some senior people on your side then you might try
naming names of offenders to them. We had one very senior partner
who insisted on knowing where we found any missing item he wanted and
pay them a visit. If they survived (!) they would often improve -
for a few weeks at least!

Hope this helps and I'm sorry I can't propose anything better.

Dawn

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Dawn Patrick
Law Librarian
City University
Northampton Square
London EC1V 0HB
0171 477 8000 ext 4020
Fax : 0171 477 8194
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