Patrons Are Cheap
At LAPL, Proposed $1 Fee for Holds Appears Dead
Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 4/23/2008
Fee was discontinued in 1994
More than 900 emails in protest
Library director “overwhelmed” by citizen concern
The Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL) proposed reinstating a $1 charge to reserve or place a hold on books, but citizen resistance has apparently killed the plan. While the Library Commission on March 20 approved a new Fines and Fees Schedule, to go into effect July 1, it is expected to approve a revised schedule this Friday, without the fee. Activists and preservationists Kim Cooper and Richard Schave, who regularly use LAPL resources for historic research, created the saveLAPL web site and generated nearly 900 email messages asking the library not to impose the holds fee. (The web site also encouraged readers to contribute to LAPL, given the library’s effort to help with the city’s $400 million shortfall.)
The campaign worked. “I am overwhelmed by the passion and concerns for the value of library services in our city expressed by hundreds of people in the e-mails," wrote City Librarian Fontayne Holmes. "Had we anticipated this kind of a response, we would not have made the recommendation for the fee in the first place. We really thought that we were reinstituting a library holds fee that we previously had for decades in the library system, a fee that was fifty cents when it was discontinued in 1994." (Of the 31 library systems LAPL surveyed in southern California, 12 currently charge 50 cents to $1 for a hold.)
“As a result, I am submitting a report to the Board of Library Commissioners, asking them to revise the Library Fines and Fees Schedule to rescind the $1.00 ‘holds’ and to increase the overdue book fine from 25 cents to 30 cents," Holmes wrote. "The increase in the overdue fines should produce revenue equal or better than the revenue from the 'holds' fee. Cooper and Schave commented, “You have been heard! Keep watching this site for more news of threats to the Library as the City budget is worked out, and ways you can speak up about how important a well funded Library is to the people of Los Angeles.”
I am posting this as an example of how cheap people can be. Perhaps the proposed dollar fee should have been halved, but still library patrons are cheap. I am sick of the starbucks cups left in the stacks. If you have money for two or three mocha half cafes then you can pop for a dollar on the odd chance you go for a book rather than your usual netflix or American Idol.
I often think Americans assume that libraries simply spring up out of the concrete already staffed and payed for. Granted, we cannot expect a totally free ride, but librarians bust their butts for nothing most of the time.
Wake up America, you are rapidly slipping into a pit of ignorance and corporate branding of your brains. Sacrifice that high calorie muffin and step over to the library one afternoon with your kids. You might be pleasantly surprised.
Good luck America. You're going to need it.
Any thoughts?
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6554386.html
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1 comment:
This isn't an issue of cheapness in Los Angeles, where dozens of new branches have been built with bond money, but very few books purchased for them. In recent years LAPL has been redesigned to operate as an inter-library loaning institution, with many, many patrons getting their books entirely from other branches. It might have made some sense to propose a flat annual fee for using this loan service, but at $1/book, this would have cost hundreds of dollars a year for many library-using families. Much more fair to impose higher fines for late books, especially if the income for the library is about the same!
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