Library Journal reports that a plan to raise money for the Los Angeles Public Library by charging a dollar for book holds has been rejected.
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.
Charge For Unclaimed
Do what a lot of libraries do. Don’t charge for holds, charge for the holds that aren’t picked up. Personally, as a Circ Jerk, I hate this. We take good time and trouble to go find the book for the patron, process it, ready it, reshelve it in a different place using a different sorting method, keep others from getting it for X number of days…
And then the ungrateful bastards don’t pick ’em up.
I think that’s worth a “restocking fee” as Best Buy might say.
Some books contain the machinery required to create and sustain universes. Tycho (Jerry Holkins) @ Penny Arcade
Charge for Unclaimed
LAPL already does charge a dollar per unclaimed hold. It doesn’t sound like much, but it’s enough to make even this well-paid professional get her buns over there and pick up those holds!
BTW, LAPL is one well-run terrific organization with friendly, well-informed staff, so much so that I “patronize” their branch library rather than the separate large city system much closer to my home.