Library charge introduction!

Reyman

Just wondering what peoples' views are on introducing a charge for Library books ---say 50 cents for each book borrowed.

They're really very poorly financed at the moment and it would allow them to get rid of a lot of their junk and get in a few decent books! People might start really using the libraries again.

We would all benefit!

simu

Not a good idea given that many of the people who go to libraries might not be able to afford that - I'm thinking of pensioners, asylum seekers and the unemployed. Maybe it's not the same countrywide but the Cork City Library (the only one I'm familar with) provides quite a good service already.

davros

They could ask people/companies to sponsor a book or books. I'd like to do that - libraries made a huge difference to me growing up.

luckat

One of the few things that kept me together in days of great poverty was the fact that I could get books out of the library for free.

If the libraries are badly financed, publicise it and get people to lobby politicians for more funding. This is the first I've heard of it.

I usually donate my books to either my local library or the Ilac library after I read them - they're generally in good condition. If more people do that it might help.

(Though the last time I had a suitcase full of books to donate I decided to give them to the prisons library, since that had been really badly stocked the last time I'd seen it. Rang up and they told me no thanks, it wasn't worth the time and effort to label the books and file them, and they had plenty of funding to buy books, thanks!)

If you tell us what the realities of library funding are - what libraries get, what they need - I for one will forward the information to my local politicians, and leaflet my neighbours with requests to do the same.

RicardoSmith

I wouldn't mind donating my books to the library. My mates usually borrow them and never give them back anyway. I loved the library as a kid.

TheSonOfBattles

I'd be willing to pay money for each individual book tbh, my fear however would be that while it would start out nice and small at say, 50c a book, they'd end up doing an xtra-vision and charging €4 a book for 2 weeks, when you can buy it for life for only a few quid.

As suggested, making people aware of this, and getting funding is the best solution.

I did love the library as a kid. I went there so often I was friends with all the staff, knew the libraries computer system better than any of the employees (this was also the first place I ever touched a computer, and my first experience at hacking, if you can call it that), was allowed to rent waaay more books than was supposed to be allowed (I once rented 7 books for a 2 week trip to my grandmothers for fear I'd run out of reading material), and even got to be friends with some of the employee's families through time spent at the library. God I was a sad bastid as a child

3 cheers for library remeniscense and memory lane ww)

Bibliofemme

The library in Carrick-on-Shannon already charges 40 cent for each book you borrow. I don't live there but use the library when I am. I don't think I'd mind paying in Dublin either. The libraries are ridiculously under-resourced and more financial input from the people who use it might change that. Let's face it, the government probably won't cough up even though we're talking about something as crucial as literacy. Also, I know it would never be allowed but it's ridiculous the amount of proofs that get chucked away by bookshops. As they're uncorrected (but generally there's nothing to be corrected in them) they would never give them to libraries. Lots of press copies are left lying around in various media outlets too and if they did frequent clear-outs of stuff they're not going to review it could be one way of upping the number of new books available to libraries.

Krusty_Clown

I too would donate all of my books to a library (either that or a charity)..
Wonder if they do this?

Reyman

I'm not sure it would be that simple for libraries to just take in books given to them by people.

In the UK there's a thing called PLR (Public Lending rights) whereby libraries must pay the author a fee, every time their book is borrowed. This can make a frequently borrowed book very expensive for the library -- A £20 book could cost the library up to £6,000 - the max payout)

PLR may or may not apply here. But if it did, libraries could not afford to be too "popular" i.e. they might discourage the borrowing of books (even books acquired free).

passive

ugh..can't they get by on fines?
i've to pay 2 euro next time i visit because i have 4 books out and i forget to renew them on monday.

50 cent per book per week or portion of a week....

i appreciate the a lot of people don't pay the fines and the more regular users are good enough not to clock them up..but i'm so bitter right now i just don't care :mad: