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Paying For Library Books-How Much Would You Afford?

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Paying for library books seems a contradiction in terms but we obviously try to save as much money as we can whilst helping our kids education through reading by borrowing books. Turns out theres a secret plan to privatise or sell off libraries (Croydon Guardian) and sure enough when visiting a local city one it had all been modernised/automated. Great - but if its a choice between fancy equipment & paying for 'borrowing' i'd rather have had my old dusty, reliable , free old library! Has anyone heard anything about how they will run such privatised libraries or have any idea about what's behind it and how they are thinking of turning any kind of profit? Will they charge for borrowing library books? Or maybe run other 'services' from there? Or maybe just asset strip the sites which are possibly in high value town locations as property sales?
Books are obviously a high priority for our kids but the economy is getting to the point where theres nothing left to cut out of family budgets!

http://www.croydonguardian.co.uk/news/localnews/10060457.Private_company_set_to_be_named_preferred_bidder_to_run_Croydon_s_libraries/
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Comments

  • fluffnutter
    fluffnutter Posts: 23,179 Forumite
    Middle classes need to stop voting Tory.
    "Growth for growth's sake is the ideology of the cancer cell" - Edward Abbey.
  • Middle classes need to stop voting Tory.

    Yes but I'm truly perplexed here.... how on earth do you make libraries into money-making operations? Its not as if you can even put a BlockBusters video franchise inside there - no one rents those any more! Maybe coffee outlets lol... or a Waterstones franchise!
  • kingkano
    kingkano Posts: 1,977 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    edited 22 November 2012 at 8:04PM
    Did you read the article you linked too?

    They won't be able to sell 'properties' -
    He said: "What we can continue to assure residents is that no branches will be lost, and the new contract also guarantees that the council will retain the freehold of all the library buildings currently in its ownership
    Borrowing books will remain free -
    "It offers the best value for money for local tax payers, guarantees that all our library branches will remain open, and that all core library services will remain free of charge to users."
    Possibly its more of a case that libraries could be run better by a large organisation that runs MANY libraries, instead of councils each running a handful of libraries themselves. Savings could easily be made with bulk buying etc.

    The article also implies that councils have been restricted from making worthwhile commercial relationships that private management could undertake better.

    Having said all that, it could still go pear shaped :) Privatisation of other aspects of government departments hasn't always lived up to expectation.
  • Did you believe them?

    Asset Strippers always say that! (as do 'modernisers' taking over factories etc promising 'no job losses' or 'natural wastage.' ) Remember the 'free schools' that had the plug pulled on them. What if the new firms say... sorry guys, we tried but your library just wasnt popular enough... time to wash our hands of it? This has happened to some leisure centres too.

    My kids don't want fancy conference centres, coffee shops in libraries - they just want to go in and borrow books to read!
  • PasturesNew
    PasturesNew Posts: 70,698 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    I've been paying to borrow books - my library never had the ones I wanted and the cost to get them brought in was a few quid. Went with that for the ones I couldn't really not have (courses etc).... but, as a rule, I'd not bother.

    Libraries (outside of big cities) are rarely any good anyway, nor are they open outside most working hours.
  • that's interesting - I didnt think people worried about having the latest books etc, maybe because its the kids that mainly use the library for fiction (i get recipe books, travel,languages etc) I must say they are quite happy with their Malorie Blackman, terry pratchett,twilight etc - they never have a problem choosing. My daughter took a dictionary for her school trip to Italy.
  • Our small-ish local library is sadly very poor these days. They seem to spend absolute fortunes buying in the latest hardbacks by popular authors then they sell off books that haven't been borrowed for three months at 10 for a pound, which just seems so wasteful to me! A family member worked there so I know this is how they do it, they are pushed for space which I do understand.

    One thing I would say they need to do is get much more into ebooks, here in Wales there is an ebooks borrowing scheme you can access via your library card but it's very limited in terms of choice, which I understand is to do with the fact that they have to buy licenses. Personally I would like to see them investing more money in these licenses as it gets round the problem of having to fit new books in small buildings. Plus, they spend piles of money on Welsh language books which all end up on the ten for a quid table almost straight away because there simply is not the demand for them.

    Anyway, rant over, I am interested to hear how others think private companies could even make a profit out of libraries?
  • peachyprice
    peachyprice Posts: 22,346 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Ah, another 'secret plan' revealed by OP.
    Accept your past without regret, handle your present with confidence and face your future without fear
  • Yes but I'm truly perplexed here.... how on earth do you make libraries into money-making operations? Its not as if you can even put a BlockBusters video franchise inside there - no one rents those any more! Maybe coffee outlets lol... or a Waterstones franchise!

    My local library (in a small town) rents out dvds for a small fee. They sell a limited range of merchandise including reusable bags, posters and giftware. There is a photocopying service at a minimal fee. They sell off the old books. They fine late returns (grown ups only) and charge a small fee for special book reservations. And there's a coffee machine. And, when they do special events (craft/reading sessions for kids) they make a small cover charge. And...

    It seems to me that there are lots of ways for (council) libraries to make money! If it was privately owned and run, I bet they could sell even more stuff/services. I mean, there's more stuff they do too but it's hard to think of it all off the top of my head. They also are open most of the week, have free computer access and support the booktrust bookstart scheme (and various things like that), which benefits all children - at school and homeschool - so they truly provide helpful and valuable community services that people are happy to support.

    The only thing that annoys me about my local library is: you have to ask a librarian if you need to use the toilet. With small kids, it's sometimes an unexpected necessity but you have to ask them to unlock the door because it's accessed via the staff corridor.
  • mjm3346
    mjm3346 Posts: 47,277 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic

    Anyway, rant over, I am interested to hear how others think private companies could even make a profit out of libraries?


    They wil be paid an amount to run them, what it costs them under that amount is profit so they will look to reduce costs and increase income.

    If the "free core service" is just lending books they presumably can charge and/or increase charges for anything else and add extra services they think will be profitable.
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