Love being brutally called out by the British Library
Oh my gosh I went here a few days ago do you guys want to see the whole sign
I’m covered with “Librarians from Everywhere” but as a former museums professional “Tourists who think we’re the British Museum” really speaks to me on a personal level.
Can we figure out a way to do this to student loan debt.
I would read Ayn Rand to pay down my student loans
Our library ran the expenses and realized we spent about 3,000$ MORE than what we got back in trying to collect late fees. So? We dropped them completely. No late fees. Period.
If you keep a book, it auto renews two times. Then it comes up as overdue. If your overdue items exceed a certain amount, your account freezes. You can’t use any of the local libraries anymore until you return the items or claim them lost and pay for them. If someone else is waiting for the book, you can’t renew. Its that simple.
And guess what. Not only did we save money, but we /got more materials back/. More materials were turned in than declared lost as compared to before. There was no stigma to it. If you had already paid for the item, the money was credited back to you.
Because the people late fees actually affected were children and elderly adults – people unable to regularly get to the library. And the stigma of late items was dropped. Attitude and mindset are important.
we still have no late fees. And we are considered to be one of the top public systems in our state. People from out of state PAY to get library cards for a year because our online Overdrive system is amazing, and we have a ton of partnerships and interlibrary loan systems in place. AND we suffer less losses of both materials and patrons due to our “no late fee” policy.
Serve your public. Don’t belittle them.
Our library doesn’t have fees for anything under YA. I like this better.
reblog and put the highest library late fee you’ve ever paid in the tags
Ok so the highest I have paid is $20 the highest I have is $5000 and still counting and I’m never going back to Louisiana again.
There’s gotta be a good story behind that $5000 fine
Ok kiddo’s sit the heckety down and hold onto your hats and broomsticks. The year is 2006. The setting, hick-fuckville Louisiana. I am but a humble child sitting in my local library reading all of the books that my school library banned, but they kept in the local library to show adults, so that way they can “warn them, becouse if your child is reading these books they are possessed by Satan.” This is the place where I got my first copy of Anne Rice’s “Interview with the Vampire” which had all if my favorite things, a male/male relationship, vampires, the Victorian age, and best of all half of it takes place in Fuck-hickville Louisiana (not to be confused with Hick-Fuckville, Louisiana). I have by me all of the books on the “don’t let your child read this or they will become a sodomite” list. I am fucking having a blast, when guess who walks the flip flopity right up to me. That’s right. Pastor AssFuck McGee. And he goes “child, these books are not for children.” To which I reply by saying nothing, picking up each book and checking them out. I walk out if the library, and I decide. Fuck you pastor AssFuck McGee. I am gonna read all if these books. 1 month later, my parents decide it’s time to move, again. I’m chill with this. I hate this town. I hate this state. And I hate Paster AssFuck McGee and I don’t even go to his church, but Kasey who sits by me during lunch does and she says that he’s a “bleepity bleeping dumb slut” and I don’t know how Kasey knows that Pastor AssFuck McGee is a slut, but I trust her opinion on it, and while I normally don’t shame people for their sex lives I was willing to make an exception just for Pastor AssFuck McGee. However, if we move I have to return my library books. But I can’t. I haven’t finished reading all fucking 23 books, 2 magazines, and the informational pamphlet on birth control. So I decided I hated Pastor AssFuck McGee and loved books more than I cared about the law. So I packed all of the library books up and move with them. I said fuck it. I’m gonna steal all of this. I was sure as fuck about to commit my first felony. We move to Arizona. I get enrolled into a new school – one day in the snazy new computer lab I boot up the computer, that terrible fucking dial up noise hurts my ears and I’m convinced God isn’t real, becouse if he was he wouldn’t allow for that God awful fucking noise. I sign on to my AOL. I have an email. It’s from the library in Louisiana. My books are late. I delete the email. I delete the email every week when they send it out. Fast forward too late 2016. I am feeling the nostalgic, I decide to log into my old AOL account I have been on it in over 5 years. I am stunned. I have an email. My books are late. I owe around $5000. I sighn out of my AOL. I never sighn back in. I go to bed that night and I whisper. “Fuck you Pastor AssFuck McGee.”
(Names in this story have been changed to protect individuals )
IM CRYIGN WHAT THE FUCK
Well-run libraries are filled with people because what a good library offers cannot be easily found elsewhere: an indoor public space in which you do not have to buy anything in order to stay. In the modern state there are very few sites where this is possible. The only others that come readily to my mind require belief in an omnipotent creator as a condition for membership. It would seem the most obvious thing in the world to say that the reason why the market is not an efficient solution to libraries is because the market has no use for a library. But it seems we need, right now, to keep re-stating the obvious. There aren’t many institutions left that fit so precisely Keynes’ definition of things that no one else but the state is willing to take on. Nor can the experience of library life be recreated online. It’s not just a matter of free books. A library is a different kind of social reality (of the three dimensional kind), which by its very existence teaches a system of values beyond the fiscal.
ok PSA ABOUT PUBLIC LIBRARIES BECAUSE I FOUND OUT TODAY THAT ONE OF MY FRIENDS HAD NEVER HAD A LIBRARY CARD BECAUSE SHE “DOESN’T READ BOOKS”
library cards are free. if you are under 18, all you need is a parent/guardian signature to get one, and if u are over 18 all u need is an id like a drivers license or something. FREE BOOKS AND STUFF. WHY WOULD YOU NOT DO THIS. IT IS SO EASY. (the id stuff could be different depending on ur area idk, this is what its like where i live)
your library has a ton of books! like so many! and if you go on their website you probably have access to like 100x more books and like 1000x more if you live in/near a largish city!
your library might have a way to check out ebooks or digital audiobooks! ask a librarian (they are literally the most helpful people on the planet) or snoop around the library’s website
your library probably gives you access to academic databases that normally cost thousands of dollars to access (again look on the website or ask a librarian)
your library has marvel/dc/image/darkhorse/whatever comics! definitely look on the website for this one because some branches will not have them but checking out comics from the library is 100x better, safer, and more legal than downloading sketchy torrents online!
your library has dvds! with movies and tv shows on them! for free! request them! some of them are not on netflix/hulu/whatever and again it is 100x safer and more legal than finding them other places online!
shealwaysreads 