changes in ebook checkout policy at the Philadelphia Free Library, effective Dec 17

[ProfCrash]

Originally Posted by Catlady

The thing is that they WERE getting free access and now it's being taken away. Whoever decides such things thought they were worthy of special treatment before; why not continue to give them special treatment by giving them a discount now? Especially the active military.

Or they revisited the policy and determined that it was too expensive to continue even though they really wanted to.

Or they found out that the free accounts were being abused somehow. Meaning someone created an account for a senior citizen and then used it themselves in order to avoid paying the fee.

Those are two possible scenarios that could lead to them discountinuing that policy. The Library needs to make sure it has enough revenue to continue providing services. With declining revenues due to shrinking tax bases because of a struggling economy, it is more then possible that the library had a practicle reason for ending a policy that they would otherwise want to continue.

Originally Posted by kennyc

Tea drinker?

Yes but not the type you are discussing

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

Or they revisited the policy and determined that it was too expensive to continue even though they really wanted to.

Or they found out that the free accounts were being abused somehow. Meaning someone created an account for a senior citizen and then used it themselves in order to avoid paying the fee.

Those are two possible scenarios that could lead to them discountinuing that policy. The Library needs to make sure it has enough revenue to continue providing services. With declining revenues due to shrinking tax bases because of a struggling economy, it is more then possible that the library had a practicle reason for ending a policy that they would otherwise want to continue.



Yes but not the type you are discussing

It's also possible they did not have enough participation in a given program to continue it. If the library cannot show a great enough community "need" --which is shown by how many people sign up, programs get defunded. Now, some of that may happen because people don't know about it. But we had programs go away because there were too few patrons utilizing them and once that happens they lose the funding that is allocated to them. Generally when budgeting, they have to present a target: We think x amount will join the book club. We want this grant or these monies.

If the grant or city budget isn't renewed--program goes.
If not enough people sign up, that can affect whether a grant is even reapplied for or they might get turned down at next application.

The budgets for libraries are strange beasts, but in general they aren't going to keep programs that aren't being used because ever single one of those programs has a budget line.

It is also true that if the wrong people were benefiting, the program might have been cancelled although usually with that, they would probably/possibly try to change the rules first to stop the abuse/unintended consequences.

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

If the grant or city budget isn't renewed--program goes.
If not enough people sign up, that can affect whether a grant is even reapplied for or they might get turned down at next application.

I don't think the city government micromanages this library. But you are surely right that it is about money. If an affluent someone wants to bring back the free borrowing privileges, contact the Development Office, and I'm sure they can work up your cost (subject to highly likely approval by the Board of Trustees and/or Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation board).

By the way, they don't have to give out-of-municipality Pennsylvania residents eBook privileges. The only legal requirement is to let state residents borrow paper books. I'm speculating that non-Philadelphia Pennsylvanians get full city privileges because of trying to please the state legislature and/or a lot of contributors come from the suburbs.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

I don't think the city government micromanages this library. But you are surely right that it is about money. If an affluent someone wants to bring back the free borrowing privileges, contact the Development Office, and I'm sure they can work up your cost (subject to highly likely approval by the Board of Trustees and/or Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation board).

By the way, they don't have to give out-of-municipality Pennsylvania residents eBook privileges. The only legal requirement is to let state residents borrow paper books. I'm speculating that non-Philadelphia Pennsylvanians get full city privileges because of trying to please the state legislature and/or a lot of contributors come from the suburbs.

Quite probably. We had a grant given to our library to fund a bookclub for an Alzheimers nursing home. But it was a one year grant. It allowed the library to buy x amount of books for the program and a librarian ran the book club during library hours at the nursing home. There was no "reapplication" so when the year was up, the program was over.

In some cases the same thing can happen with an overall budget. Our library could request special monies for x, y or z. Now, that didn't mean they would actually SPEND it on that thing (almost always did) but because it was outside the regular budget request, it might also run out within a year. So a program might kind of be on a trial basis depending on where the money is coming from

Then there are the cases where things are approved, but not funded or partially funded. This actually happened with two hiring requisitions. They were part time, were requested and granted. However they were not "funded in full." So while there was some additional money in the "library overall budget" there was not actually enough to hire either part time worker.

[Meemo]

Originally Posted by Catlady

The thing is that they WERE getting free access and now it's being taken away. Whoever decides such things thought they were worthy of special treatment before; why not continue to give them special treatment by giving them a discount now? Especially the active military.

Well, it isn't taken away for those who already had a card, at least not yet. I think those who already had the senior or military cards when the policy changed were grandfathered in. That may go away eventually - every time I sign in (we have a military vet free card) I half expect it to be declined, but so far it's still good. And this change only affects non-residents, of course.

And I suspect it's purely a financial thing. The non-resident card was only $15/year 3-4 years ago, then it went up to $35. Now it's $50, and they offer fewer services than they used to (besides lowering the limit of checkouts, Freegal, their free music download service, was dropped this year). I can't blame them, really. It was lovely that they offered it free for seniors and military when they could afford it, clearly they can't afford it any longer.

And by the way, each branch of the military has its own Overdrive library set up for eBooks and audiobooks, so the active duty military really doesn't "need" the free FLP access. It was a much handier perk for military retirees who perhaps didn't live near a military base and had difficulty get signed up for access to their service's Overdrive collection.

[Sydney's Mom]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

Seems odd as overdrive has 41962 books if you search for political. Oh well.

Helen

Yes, but my library doesn't buy them.

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by Sydney's Mom

Yes, but my library doesn't buy them.

Yes. Because the publisher won't sell them the librarian told you? I am sure that was what you were told, but I can't think why.

Helen

[MrsAmandaK]

I can never seem to find what I want on Overdrive *shrug*

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by MrsAmandaK

I can never seem to find what I want on Overdrive *shrug*

I have that problem too. I've checked out two books from Overdrive. I check it often, but there isn't a lot of UF out there. There are some cozies, but I haven't found any yet that I was interested in downloading.

[dkperez]

I had the non-resident card for FLP for two years, but I also tracked the frequency with which I COULD ONLY find a book there. If it was at one of my other libraries AND FLP, it didn't count..... In two years, there were three (3) books that I ONLY found at FLP. Either they were in other libraries I patronize, or they weren't in ANY...

But, this isn't the tread to start ranting about the miserable, thieving, scumbag, lowlife publishers that won't make books available to libraries at a reasonable cost.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Technically I can get 2*3 at home, 6*8 at school, and 1*5 from a random location, if you count all the library cards I have of friends. With permission of course. formula=cards*limit. That would be 59 books at a time. So I guess I'm all right really.

Originally Posted by CommonReader

Blessings? My local library here in Germany allows me to have up to 99 ebooks on loan and to have up to ten reserved on the waiting list. It costs 10 € p.a.
While you can probably manage with six books at the same time I wouldn't really call it generous. Obviously still better than nothing for people who have no local alternative.

And I just got access to the Queens library -- hello, 50-book checkout limit!!

[Froide]

Originally Posted by kennyc

ROFL! Thanks for sharing, KennyC; I needed a good laugh today.

[SandyLu562]

Originally Posted by chilady1

Orange County Public library in Florida allows 20 at a time.

Likewise the LA city library here in CA

Not sure when they changed from 10. Items on hold is still limited to 10

[rdfry]

Thank goodness I'm grandfathered in for the moment.