Does your library have a # limit on books you can check out? - Page 2

[SubliminalDarkness]

I just had to look it up. I didn't know. LOL.

50 items per card. Each family member can have a card. Non-book items can have a limit as well, like 3 DVDs/VHS.

We go weekly, so we keep our numbers lower. And in order to keep track, we have consistent numbers. Each boy can get five books. I also don't allow myself more than five books unless there's a subject I'm doing research on.

What is cool is we can borrow books from any library in Georgia. We request them, and they're sent to our local branch. Fortunately, our branch is about three miles down a rural road from our house It's pretty small, but the librarians are awesome and know us by name. All we have to do is step through the doors and they immediately go behind the desk and pull out whatever books we have on hold

[frugalmama]

Ours is 50 items per card, with a limit of 5 DVDs and 5 VHS/CDs. Kids can get their own cards at any age. They have a hold limit of 20 items too.

We are very lucky to have a public library location less than a block away located inside a high school who knows us by name and has excellent service.

[karemore]

I didn't think ours had a limit so I just checked. We do not have a limit.

What I also learned is that I can request titles outside our library system. Our library system has 70 libraries so I can't imagine what I would need from an outside library, but it's good to know.

One smaller library in the system has a big sign that says limit 2 books per topic per family. I assume they were having a problem. They are also among the crabbiest of local librarians so we don't go there often.

I check my record online a couple times a week. I track my requests that way and also catch any errors by the library. Sometimes they reshelf a book without checking it in. And this week they checked out a book that wasn't supposed to go out, then started charging me 50 cents a day in fines. I returned it and complained and they waved the fines, but I would have been upset if they froze my account due to mistaken fines.

[moominmamma]

You'll laugh, but ...

For our local library: 2 books on a kid's card, 4 books on an adult's. Two-week lending period. Technically it's not considered a true library, because it has no staff librarian, being just staffed by stuffy elderly volunteers who believe it is their job to protect the library's collection from the sordid masses. Hence the stingy-beyond-belief lending policies.

So I don't feel too guilty about buying books.

Miranda

[greenbeanmama]

We're in a pretty small town in Iowa, so our library is not spectacular. I don't know of a limit, but it isn't networked to any other library, and we can't get cards for any other town. And inter-library-loan costs $1 per book. But when we lived in Minnesota, you could get any book in the state, and return to any library, regardless of where you checked out the book - awesome system! (Also awesome online system - Rosetta Stone for free, almost any magazine imaginable, etc).

We live three blocks from our library, and we're there at least once a week. We usually have about twenty kids' books out, plus whatever my husband and I are reading. Books are checked out for two weeks with a maximum of two renewals.

[Fillyjonk]

Whoah some of you have it good!

We have 15 items per person. 4 week loans. Ridiculous fines, something like 50p (75 c?) a day. Since we can and do take out (5x15=) 75 books at a time, and are always losing them down the back of the settee, this is no joke.

Interlibrary loan system is rubbish, books take beyond ages to arrive but worse costs £4 (?$6) per book, so given fine situation above its generally its cheaper to buy the book and resell it. I don't think we have a great selection of books here anyway, which is a bit bad as we are meant to be a capital city.

No teacher's cards round here, OH no.

Any other UK homeschoolers on here? What are your libraries like?

[VisionaryMom]

We can get 25 per card. Both kids have cards. I'm glad now that they do because we couldn't get everything we need on just my card. We had to get theirs for access to the children's computers.

Our library has no fines on books, which makes my life much, much easier - & cheaper!

[mama_ani]

Our library has a 50 books per card rule but every family member can have their own card. We could get 300 books out at a time if we wanted.

[VisionaryMom]

Originally Posted by SubliminalDarkness

What is cool is we can borrow books from any library in Georgia. We request them, and they're sent to our local branch. Fortunately, our branch is about three miles down a rural road from our house It's pretty small, but the librarians are awesome and know us by name. All we have to do is step through the doors and they immediately go behind the desk and pull out whatever books we have on hold

Yes, I loved the PINES system when we lived in Georgia! (I don't know if it's still called that...) We are in a different state now, and inter-library loan is such a chore & only for networked libraries.

[*Lisa*]

Ours has no limit on books (thank goodness!).

[SubliminalDarkness]

Originally Posted by VisionaryMom

Yes, I loved the PINES system when we lived in Georgia! (I don't know if it's still called that...) We are in a different state now, and inter-library loan is such a chore & only for networked libraries.

Its still called PINES

[Fillyjonk]

It is truly cool beyond reason that some of you can take out as many books as you want, and/or have no fines.

[CCJWGM]

You lucky ducks. On my card I get to check out ONE book in the adult section of the library. ONE. I've tried to sneak in a children's book and it gets denied.

My children get the special "you live in the middle of nowhere but we kind of want kids to read" card and get to check out 25 from the children's section.

To get a better card I would have to pay $60/year or live within city limits. I guess they don't trust us country folk. On the plus side the fines are low although I'm really super anal and have never gotten any. The super easy inter library loan program covers 3 counties and I can order the childrens books via internet.

[Starflower]

Our library is part of a large county-wide library system. We each have a card and the limit is 100 items checked out per card.

While we have never had 300 books checked out at once over here, I'd say we regularly have 50+ between the three of us. And we get to keep them for a whole month and can renew online.

What I have the worst trouble with is DVDs. We can only keep them for a week.

I don't remember that well, but it seems to me that growing up we could only have like 6 books at a time. But it was a single library town in a large area small population state. And they may have had special rules for children.

[One_Girl]

Ours has no limit. I can't imagine being limited to only 40 for the two of us. We like to get books, movies, and music so that would really be a hardship.

[Crafty]

Ours is 25 items per card, which really, REALLY irked me when we only had one card. We would check out 10-15 items for school, ds would want to check out a bunch of books, and then there wouldn't be much room for me to check anything out! Finally, ds got his own card and now we can check out 50 items. MUCH better, although we've come near that limit too a few times. I HATE that there's a limit at all.

[nov05mama]

No limit at all...we normally have at least 50 out at a time We are able to check out for 3 weeks and renew as much as we want (as long as the book hasn't been requested by someone else). Fines are set at a max of $2 per book with a max amount of $10 total. I am able to renew online, which makes fines nearly obsolete

[earthworm]

50 per card. We just discovered this recently, hehe.
We usually go weekly so it's no big deal. I always feel like I am getting away with something by checking out so many books! "You mean I can keep these for up to 6 weeks? FOR FREE??" I think the limit makes me feel better; I need boundaries, haha.