Category: libraries

One of the largest challenges with serving “the public” is that you’re answerable to the public for your decisions. So when a conservative think tank issues a report that says your libraries are full of extremist literature and you reply that you’re trying to achieve a balanced collection, how do you think people are going to respond? This news story reminds me of this post to the library_mofo group on LiveJournal (sorry, if you’re not a member of the group you won’t be able to read it, but membership is free) where a newly minted MLIS grad starts a job in a Catholic school library and has to figure out what to do with the well-meaning but seemingly inappropriate donations (hate speech, graphic anti-abortion flyers) she receives from library patrons. If you’re seeing that the connection is having a good collection development policy and effective communication with the media and your library administration, you’re most of the way there. In the work I do over at MetaFilter, our last resort to people unhappy with policies is to tell them “well perhaps this isn’t the right community for you, you are welcome to leave at any time” but this is a much stickier issue in a public library, even though we do see libraries doing this from time to time. [thanks eoin]

We talk a lot about what works in libraries, but our decentralized nature makes real data collection sometimes difficult and often onerous. This article, which I am still plowing through, came to me in the mail via the Sandy Berman Monthly Envelope o’ Stuff. It’s written by Douglas Galbi who is a sort of library fanboy but also a senior economist at the FCC and from what I can tell, a pretty smart guy. So, read Book Circulation per US Public Library User since 1856 and then click around a little to see what else is on Douglas’s library analysis page. Then, if you’re still intrigued, go check out his blog where you can check the latest issue of Carnival of the Bureacrats and especially enjoy the video of him talking to an older gentleman about why he doesn’t have high-speed internet access. I find it hard to believe there are other library fanatics out there who videotape their conversations with octogenarians and then blog about it, but there you go. Enjoy.

I remember that there was a big discussion when this article about library fines came out last year, but I was wondering what has happened since? I have a friend at a large-ish library in Vermont who is thinking about trying to push for the elimination of fines at her library. She is looking for anecdotes but also data from libraries who have previously had fines and then eliminated them, data she can take to her board. I think it’s pretty easy to say “Well we lost $3,000 but we made it up in goodwill!” but in some cases 3K is not an amount you can afford to lose when you can’t pay the propane bill with goodwill. I have a few starter questions.

– Do you have different fines for different media?
– Do you have a grace period after the due date but before fines are levied?
– Does it make sense to remove fines but still bill for lost/damaged books?
– Do you have a “conscience jar” and if so, do people use it?
– Do you think fines really encourage people to bring materials back on time?
– Do you think removing fines meant that you got fewer materials back on time?
– Do you think having a catalog that allowed people to place holds on checked-out materials lessens the need for fines?

So, please feel free to leave some links and stories in the comments so that I can help my friend help her library. Thank you.