Quote:
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
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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.