Your Local Libraries

[Dawn]

Why the Public Library beat Amazon

From the Wall Street Journal:

http://online.wsj.com/articles/why-th...

[Jane]

Eye-opening article.

[Dawn]

I thought it laid out all the arguments quite well. Though I'm definitely biased toward the library side myself.

[Darcy]

I reckon this is also applicable for audiobooks

[Dawn]

So far, I haven't run out of audiobooks to get from the library. I have a 45 audiobook a year habit, most of them are digital and not CD, so I find it makes it hard to justify something like an Audible.com account.

Maybe if I found someone to share it with?? But $9 a book (at the minimum) for something I can't hold in my hand?? Or share??

[Darcy]

I'm the same. I can't think of any reason why I'd use Audible. And I only borrow mp3 audiobooks, yet the collection is pretty good. It would even be large if I'd select the other type of digital audio files that can be listened to on a computer. But I only listen to them on my Itouch.

[Simona]

I wish my library would be so well equipped :(

[Dawn]

It's definitely something we're very lucky with here. :)

[Simona]

yes dawn, you really are *goes green with envy*

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Wow. Does it cost that much to get an Audible book? $9 each? Did I read that right? I thought with Audible you paid a small membership fee (like $40) and then you could download as many as you want all year.

[Leland]

You get one credit (or two or three) per month and pay a monthly fee. I pay $16.00 and some change for my subscription (1credit per month) after taxes.

[Leland]

I think $ 9.00 is just the introductory price.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

So..does you get one free book a month for the $16 a month and then you have to pay for any more you want? Is that what you mean, Leslie?

That seems super expensive. I must be reading that wrong.

[Leland]

In general yes it's one audiobook for $16. Although occasionally they have "buy 4 get one" and I just picked up The Fellowship of the Ring in a BOGO sale ( buy one get one). Do they call them BOGO sales in Australia?

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

No, lol, I have never heard of a BOGO sale.
We do have Buy One Get One Free sales though. Never abbreviated. Never BOGO. :D

[Leland]

Do you have to shop them on Pogo sticks like we do here? Pogo BOGO?

[Leland]

Oh I'm kidding! :)

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

haha. I knew you were kidding!! :D

[Dawn]

If you get the biggest membership plan, ($230 for 24 books), then it's $9.50 a book (+tax I assume). That is the cheapest per book price. And I just can't justify it while my library is free!

[Mark]

Terri wrote: "No, lol, I have never heard of a BOGO sale.
We do have Buy One Get One Free sales though. Never abbreviated. Never BOGO. :D"

Leslie wrote: "In general yes it's one audiobook for $16. Although occasionally they have "buy 4 get one" and I just picked up The Fellowship of the Ring in a BOGO sale ( buy one get one). Do they call..."

we call them BOGOFs here in the uk.popular for double glazing companies.

[happy]

I've gotten several books in on ILL this last couple of weeks - the due dates vary WILDLY - my current read in due on Aug 28, a couple of histories are due Oct 28 :)

Normally I have 3 weeks, with no renewal

Today Mrs Happy brought home Mr. Kane's



for me with a due date of 21 Aug, there is no way I can get it read it time - It's going back tomorrow with a request for an extension, if I can't get one, I'll have to rerequest it. (shakes head)

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

I am actually quite stunned by the prices from Audible. Although, if you get that big membership, it makes it better.

I suppose $9.50 an audiobook is okay, if you are really into them. They are certainly dearer in the flesh, but I suppose I am so used to getting things for free from the library.
In saying that, the library isn't going to offer people the selection that you would get from Audible.

oh well, doesn't affect me any. :) I don't listen to audiobooks. I hate people reading to me. lol

[Darcy]

These are all on the U.S., and all very cool. Neighbourhoods in my city also do #10.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/ph...

[Thom]

I’ve often said that my ideal vacation would be to travel and hit all the libraries as books can transport me farther and faster than any other earthly locomotion. I’ve done it in Europe, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Berlin, Paris and Prague to name just a few but I still have a dream of spanning the US library hopping. That is on the top of my bucket list.

[Margaret, Sherlockian Sheila]

I hope to visit the British Library when I'm in London next year. And maybe the Bodliean in Oxford.

[Devon]

I mostly patronize the Fletcher Library of Arizona State University West. Love it. Big library, small campus, so it's rarely busy or noisy, and I can get anything from the other university libraries within 24 hours. I'm an alum, so I keep up membership in the alumni association, which permits me to get a deeply discounted community library card. Onr thing that sucks though is that community cardholders can't access ILL.

[Kathryn]

I like the idea of a library, and spent a lot of time in one as a child in the US. Now I live in the UK and I'm only an occational library usuer. My local library is small seems to stock only top twenty books. These are rarely what I read. When I do want to get something if the library has the book elsewhere then I have to pay .60p, or about $1 to have it sent to my local branch.

[Shomeret]

I feel fortunate that my library system has an ILL network that includes some academic libraries which is completely free for users. I am very extensive library user.The library gets new books that I want. Right now my library book is Raiders of the Nileby Steven Saylor which is a young Gordianus novel.

[Mark]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ailbhemalone/...

not sure if this is the right place, but some lovely bookshops.

number 1 is my local 2nd hand book.

[Darcy]

I think repurposing a rail station into a bookshop makes so much sense since their history is so intrinsically linked. That and the 'pocketbook' originated because of train travel. Looks wonderful Mark. Some of the others as well. We should design a 'Grand Tour' of used bookshops around the world. Open reflection, it should a grand tour of book things in general, famous streets, libraries and interesting bookshops that sell new books too

[Mark]

A bookworms tour country by country. Nice. Any interest? :)

[Sonny]

I'm all about book shops. These are some great ones to add to my list of "want to visit".

[Dawn]

Here's a few more.... http://www.theguardian.com/books/book...

[Sonny]

Thanks, Dawn...even more to drool over.:)

[Susan]

Mark wrote: "A bookworms tour country by country. Nice. Any interest? :)"

Count me in. I would love to go on a tour 'Bookworms Tour"

[Margaret, Sherlockian Sheila]

Mark wrote: "http://www.buzzfeed.com/ailbhemalone/...

not sure if this is the right place, but some lovely bookshops.

number 1 is my local 2nd hand book."

I made a note of several in London to go onto my visit list for next year. :)

[happy]

I'll need to revisit this theme when I make my retirement trip to England :)

[Linda]

The pictures were entertaining. The bookshop that floated by and first picture in photos you need to really study were my favorites. Just a few? That was a bunch! That girl's arm was--that was her arm,, right? 'She's got one big breast in the middle of her chest and an eye in the middle of her nose, so says I....' That little tune from BIG RIVER just popped into my head. Thanks for the tour!

[Edoardo]

Leslie wrote: "In general yes it's one audiobook for $16. Although occasionally they have "buy 4 get one" and I just picked up The Fellowship of the Ring in a BOGO sale ( buy one get one). Do they call..."

You sometimes get 'buy one, get one free' sales in England, which becomes the wonderful acronym BOGOF(f)!

[Meri]

Well I've just discovered my local library but sadly they are introducing a fee for holds and interlibrary loans. I can understand why, they don't get much from the government or local councils. It's a public library that belongs to a group of about 15 libraries of varying sizes.

The branch where I grew up in currently being redeveloped and has temporarily moved back into its old premises whilst a new building is built as part of the shopping centre extension. It should be amazing once finished, which isn't expected to occur til next year. My closest one now is quite small but I have two others all within a 5 minute drive so I'm lucky.

I haven't been to a library in years until recently as they never seemed to have the books I was interested in so I just ended up buying all my books. It was actually this group that made me curious enough to check out my local library and they have more than what I gave them credit for. I borrowed 6 books and have a further 6 on hold and 3 are already available to collect. The library only opens for 3 hours on a Saturday and it's closed Sunday, is that common among libraries? It makes it hard to visit for those who work full time. I would've thought the weekend would be their busiest time.

[Darcy]

My library system has some 9 branches. Only the central branch (main library) is open Sunday and Monday. The other 8 branches are open until 5 on Saturdays, while the central branch is open until 9 or 10. Weekdays they're all open until 10 or 11.
Here they're like little community centres, providing activities for kids (mostly). I suspect it was originally thought that at week ends there are loads of other things kids can do (sports organizations etc). Also, when I was a kid Scouts and Guides were all on Mondays and at schools. So being closed that day didn't really have an impact.
It seems to be one of those institutions that hasn't really moved with the times in terms of hours of operation (at least in my community) but on the other hand, no one is ever confused by them either.

[Dawn]

My local library system has 24 branches and they all have different hours. They started expanding the hours about 10 years ago and now they are often open 'til 9 pm on weekdays. The bigger city libraries have 7 day a week hours and the smaller ones have anything from only open 2 days a week to the standard Sunday-Monday closed days.
I always thought the hours were due to when students needed the library the most. And none of them studied on Saturday night or Sundays (especially here with all the church goers back in the day), no homework assigned for Mondays....
I am so happy I don't have to pay for holds or ILL though. That would cost me a fortune, I put everything on hold, even if it's on the shelves of the library I pick them up from. Then I don't have to search for anything, it's all on a shelf with my name on it!

[Meri]

The fees proposed are $2 for holds and $15 for ILL!! Ouch!! For $15 I think I may just drive to the library that has it and borrow from them directly! The fees don't come in until June thankfully, I have a few months where I can hold and ILL to my hearts content. They are seeking community feedback on the proposed budget now so maybe the fees might be lowered? I hope so.

[Dawn]

For $15 I'd just buy. I'm actually thinking of buying anyway because my library takes 4 months to get me my ILL requests. Most of my ILL's come from too far away for me to drive.

For $2 holds I think I'd also just drive to the library though.

I think my used book store would be seeing a whole lot more of me if my library did this. :)

[Meri]

Yes, it's enough to force people to consider alternatives to the library. Especially with how cheap ebooks are!

[Jane]

My library system [covers 4 counties in Upstate New York] charges $4.95 for ILLs [postage to return a book] and 25 cents for each book put on hold. If the system doesn't have the book, if I so desire I put that money towards buying an available copy rather than an ILL. Otherwise I just do without. For holds, I do not begrudge the money; sometimes the library gets the book from 2 hours away driving time and I feel the charge goes towards gas money.

[Shomeret]

My library system is in an ILL network in which all members of the network lend books to all other network members for free. If I want a book from outside the ILL network, it costs me $2. I have only done this once with an out of print book that would have been expensive to purchase. Otherwise I pay nothing for either ILLs or holds.

[happy]

My county's library system has 7 branches and a co-op agreement with the next county to the north's library system, no charge for holds (thank goodness or I'd go broke :) ) and $1 for ILLs outside the system. They get a considerable amount of funds from property taxes (I pay roughly $30/yr)

The hours at all the branches are 10AM - 9PM Mon-Thur, 10AM - 6PM Fri, Sat and closed on Sundays.

[Jane]

https://lafourchelibrary.wordpress.co...

A great article: "In praise of libraries" by Joe Queenan! I picked up a reprint at my local public library [Vestal, NY] then found it online to share with everyone.

[Thomas]

My local library is perhaps one of those places I most like to be. It only has two branches but it's still a reasonable sized library that I can rely on for books and movies. But my library doesn't have all the books I want obviously so of course rely on the requesting system. Unfortunately, I have bad habit of changing my mind about things, and I would often cancel requests. Which did get me in trouble once, I'm embarrassed to say. Now I'm much more careful and less careless of it. Still, I hope library's will be with us in the future, as I feel they are very important to society.