Quote:
Originally Posted by 93terp
To pile on, library books are NOT free! Every person who pays state/local taxes contributes to the commons, one of those commons being a state/county/city public library system.
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They are free to the borrower though, which I think contributes a lot to the problems libraries have.
If the library can't charge for its services, then the only ways it can manage increased demand is to reduce services, pay suppliers or staff less, or engage in politics to push for tax increases.
If they could charge fees then they would have another way to manage costs. Even a small fee per loan would give borrowers an incentive to be more selective with what they borrow, and would be some protectiuon against abuse of the service.
I think it would be fairer on everyone to charge fees to people who make heavy use of the services, such as adults who borrow hundreds of fiction books per year.