Does your library charge for requesting books?

[oceanbaby]

At our library, you get the first request free, and then they charge you I think $.25 for each additional one (until the first one is filled, and then you get another free one). I find this highly irritating, as I often want to gather a few books, maybe 3-5, for a particular subject.

Is this normal for most library systems?

[momtokea]

Nope, I had 35 books on hold last week and there was no charge, up until a certain date. There were 3 books that I didn't want to borrow and I had to take them to the desk and let the librarian know that I wasn't borrowing them. If I had left them on the shelf I would have been charged to keep them on hold after a certain time. Does that make sense?

[ellesmama]

The library where I used to live did this. It was also 25 cents.

The library where I am not does not do this.

I can understand why this would be annoying for you. But, having worked at a library I know why they do it. It takes a lot of time to gather those books and it is frustrating when people don't pick them up, like they didn't really mean it. So have the 25 cent fee makes you think a little before you request 20 cds and not pick them and do the same thing 2 weeks later (this happened all the time, my library did NOT charge for requests)

also, the library I worked at had a special educator library card that teachers and homeschooling families could have in addition to their regular library card that they could use to request books on a certain subject for a certain age group and the librarians would handpick books (up to 20) for them for FREE. I couldn't believe this service, I thought that was extremely generous.

[Thalia the Muse]

We only get charged if we request books and then don't pick them up, which I think is a reasonable way to discourage frivolous requests.

[elizawill]

my library doesn't charge....but get this!!!... i can put books on hold but when i go to pick them up, they expect me to go and find the books: i'm from atlanta - you know...where you put a book on hold and go to the library desk and pick it up. that's normal to me...so i thought? well...not here! i live in a very small town in SC & when you put books on hold, the librarians do NOT collect them at all. according to them...a book on "hold" simply means if someone else tries to check out, they can't. that's so stupid.

[purslaine]

No.

Kathy

[karemore]

We're not charged but our library tax is high.

I worry every time I request a bunch of books that I'm just raising our taxes higher!

I can't imagine only being able to request one book at a time!

[oceanbaby]

I just called, and they have nothing like an educator's card. And in fact, I found out that it's $.50 for each request! I think that's really high. I can totally see being charged for requests that aren't picked up, but really, isn't it supposed to be a free library?

I find it really frustrating when we want to do a project, and I research 4 or 5 books that we want to use, and they are all at different libraries, so I would have to either drive around picking them all up, or pay $2.50 to request them.

[ABmom]

Originally Posted by momtokea

Nope, I had 35 books on hold last week and there was no charge, up until a certain date. There were 3 books that I didn't want to borrow and I had to take them to the desk and let the librarian know that I wasn't borrowing them. If I had left them on the shelf I would have been charged to keep them on hold after a certain time. Does that make sense?

Ditto with ours. The charge is $2/book that is not picked up by a certain date (usually 5 days). You can request as many books as you want and from anywhere in the city. And the annual adult fee is $18.

[luv-my-boys]

our library does this it only irritates me because it is not a "nominal" fee, it is .75 per item, some items up to 1.00 per item. although we are in wealthy county the branch closest to me is a very small branch and therefore most items are located in the main branch. But my question is there are some people in our community who might not be able to afford that to get books sent to the smaller branch. I actually brought this up with the librarian and was basically told that if they didnt want to pay the fee they could go get it at the main branch: My reasoning is the smaller branch is directly off a main bus route that is handicap accessible and therefore easier for say the elderly or those with out private transportation to get to, the main is a few blocks from a bus route. I often pay a few dollars to get homeschooling books sent to our branch and although I can afford it I feel bad for those who might not in my community.

[momtokea]

Originally Posted by elizawill

my library doesn't charge....but get this!!!... i can put books on hold but when i go to pick them up, they expect me to go and find the books: i'm from atlanta - you know...where you put a book on hold and go to the library desk and pick it up. that's normal to me...so i thought? well...not here! i live in a very small town in SC & when you put books on hold, the librarians do NOT collect them at all. according to them...a book on "hold" simply means if someone else tries to check out, they can't. that's so stupid.

Oh yeah, that's just stupid. what's the point of putting it on hold, then?:
The whole point for me is to walk in and pick them up quickly without searching all over the library.

Our library has a 'hold' shelf where you go and pick them up, all bundled together under your library card number. Then you take them to the desk and sign them out.

[Ruthla]

Nope, the only things the library charges for here is overdue fees and fees to attend certain programs that take place at the library.

If you don't pick up your "held" books on time, they get returned to circulation. I wish I had the option to pay a fee and have them held an extra day!

[earthmama369]

Ours has late fees for items you have out past the due date, but we don't get charged for requesting items. It's a very user-friendly library system in our state. They really encourage people to use the resources -- it justifies any grants they get.

[Devaskyla]

Nope, the only things the library charges for here is overdue fees and fees to attend certain programs that take place at the library.

If you don't pick up your "held" books on time, they get returned to circulation. I wish I had the option to pay a fee and have them held an extra day!

:

[PassionateWriter]

no and that would make me stop using hte library. we have started reserving several books on a topic (this week is tigers) and its so easy to do it online and pick up the books instead of spending an hour looking for them (the children's section is really unorganized).

i walk in, get the books, and leave (sometimes..other times we play and look for mommy books)...but the idea is that i dont have to spend all that time looking for 5 books on tigers.

[Mercury_Girl]

Originally Posted by Ruthla

Nope, the only things the library charges for here is overdue fees and fees to attend certain programs that take place at the library.

If you don't pick up your "held" books on time, they get returned to circulation. I wish I had the option to pay a fee and have them held an extra day!

Same here. I am really feeling thankful for my library right now.

[ahdoula]

We are charged for requests OUTSIDE the inter library loan program, so if I want something from Buffalo or NYC it's $5.

It is free from the local ILL (about 25 libraries across 3 counties) unless I don't pick it up (after a week) then I get charged $1. But if I don't need a book that I requested I can cancel it online and don't get charged the fee.

I can request up to ten at a time on a single card- so three of us have cards (which are free to get) and I often have 30 on reserve at a time.

We get fined for late vids, 1$ a day up to $5 and .10 cents a day for books up to $5.

Really our system rocks.

[amandaleigh37]

No fees here... for any kind of hold or ILL requests. Our late fees (which I recently found out about when the "you have books due this week" email did not arrive, ugh) is $.10/day for books and $1/day for videos. Unfortunately I had 30 books out that were 10 days late..... to say I was kicking myself would be an understatement

[elizawill]

Originally Posted by momtokea

Oh yeah, that's just stupid. what's the point of putting it on hold, then?:
The whole point for me is to walk in and pick them up quickly without searching all over the library.

Our library has a 'hold' shelf where you go and pick them up, all bundled together under your library card number. Then you take them to the desk and sign them out.

thank you! i like to think i'm a very easy going gal, but that really is just plain stupid to me too! i just buy books from amazon rather than try and find things at my library...it's so much less of a hassle!

[PGTlatte]

Our suburban area library system is awesome.

I can go online and search and reserve books from any library in the system. Our local library will notify me when they are ready and I pick them up at the desk. There is no charge for any of this.

We pay our local library taxes. For people who live outside the taxed area, they have to pay an annual fee to have a card. The system also charges late fees, and DVDs cost one dollar for three days.