[Publib] Re: Charging patrons for programs

[Beth]

Hello again! I am getting many wonderful responses to my question below;
please keep them coming.
Did I ever say how terrific you all are?
And yes, I will post responses when I've collected all my info - and let you
know which way we decide to go, b/c right now we are still in the discussion
phase.
Thanks again!
-- 
Beth Borene
Youth Services Librarian
beth.borene at gmail.com

On 4/1/08, Beth <beth.borene at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi All-
>
> Please excuse cross posting.
>
> In this age of budget cuts, my library system is considering charging
> patrons a nominal entrance fee to attend library programming to help offset
> the cost of the professional performers/teachers (because we just don't have
> the staff to do all programming in house and the system cannot seem to
> arrive at a reasonable maximum performance fee). Personally I think this
> idea won't wash very well for the more urban part of our demographic, but I
> was curious to see if this is becoming more common nowadays.
>
> *Has any other library begun charging patrons entrance/nominal fees to
> attend a library sponsored program? What are your good and bad experiences
> with this? How did you implement it and explain it to your patrons? How did
> your patrons react?
>
> *Also, how many of you offer computer classes to your patrons? How many of
> you charge them a fee to attend those classes? I'm looking for reasoning to
> keep teaching computer classes at the library - our community services
> director is now rethinking offering computer classes in the library at all.
>
> Thanks in advance (as always) for all of your help! Feel free to shoot me
> an email at the address below.
>
> --
> Beth Borene
> Youth Services Librarian
> beth.borene at gmail.com
>
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