Comments on: Making Money for the Library

By: Elena1980

Elena1980 — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 20:07:04 +0000

“…you have access to the Dungheap County Library, but for a mere $2/week you could have access to the glories of the Shinola Public Library! ”

Wait, don’t they already have that sort of access through Interlibrary Loan, a service already paid for by your tax dollars? :P

By: Lynne

Lynne — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 15:51:52 +0000

I would like to know what it is REALLY like to work at the Williamsburg Regional Library; what is going on beyond the doors with employees?

By: Josh

Josh — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 01:58:23 +0000

I just assumed!

And my library does have recordings of Bartok quartets. Not sure about the Carolingian history material though.

By: Annoyed Librarian

Annoyed Librarian — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 19:50:11 +0000

“but your tax dollars don’t fund our library.”

How do you know?

By: Josh

Josh — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 18:53:42 +0000

“One way is charging people to check out materials. As should be clear from a couple of posts ago, I’m not in favor of this option, even for popular tripe like DVDs and fluffy bestsellers. It’s just charging people twice. Libraries already force people to pay for them, even if the people don’t use them.”

I can only speak for the library I work at, but we would not currently have this service if people did not want it. In other words, we would not buy six copies of “The Town” if we did not charge for it. We charge for it because people want to be able to check out a new release for $1. So we’re not charging people twice…the revenue generated by the rental fee allows us to buy multiple copies of new releases. It’s more or less a self-sustaining service.

In better economic times, we let them check those items out for free. You may argue that we should not have done that, but used the money we were spending on new fluff movies to buy those multiple recordings of Bartok quartets and books on the Carolingian empire you think every podunk library should carry, but your tax dollars don’t fund our library.

By: RealLibrarian

RealLibrarian — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 15:59:54 +0000

I have to take issue with your first sentence. I believe you are confusing the federal government with Congress, which does, indeed, spend like drunken sailors on shore leave. As a librarian in the federal government, however, I promise you there is nothing to spend. It never trickles down this far.

By: Dominic

Dominic — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 15:45:37 +0000

Funny.
On a more positive note, I could see this being less terrible if local businesses (rather than Wal-Mart) benefited.
Re: the WSJ article, I can’t think of a better way for companies to encourage piracy of e-books. I see that the article has 638 Facebook “likes” and am disgusted. Can’t say I’m surprised, though.