[Publib] Re: Charging patrons for programs

[Judith Turner]

Ah, but Wisconsin libraries pay for quite a variety of things, just like libraries elsewhere - delivery services, shared catalogs, joint programming is paid for somehow. Why is it better to spread the cost over the entire community, regardless of whether they want to attend a program, than to recoup the added costs of that program by charging a user fee?  Frankly, this approach leads to fairly ho-hum programming in many communities.  

We justify a lot of activities by saying the encourage a lifelong enjoyment of reading or an opinion that the library as a community asset.  It seems to me that support is either illusory or has been evaporating rapidly since the late 1970's when California passed the infamous Proposition 13.  As the Boomers and Gen X'ers exercise their power in the voting booth and in political offices, the shift away from adequate public support of just about anything, except Bear Stearns perhaps, seems to have gone the way of the dinosaur. 
 
Much as it pains me to say it, it ought to be possible to come up with ways to charge to recover costs for specialized or custom services that benefit a very few residents so that overall library service in not diminished.  To me it seems illogical that collection development and staff training are sacrificed so that public programs and outreach services can be offered free-of-charge.  175 years ago, the founders of the US free public library movement never conceived of the possibilities of the 21st century library.  Charging a fee for a film showing that helps the library cover the public performance license to show that film is not a betrayal of the cause of free library service .  

If a community cannot tax its residents at a level that offers everyone first-class libraries and library services (and Wisconsin imposes a cap on local government spending), then judicious cost recovery ought to be an option. Better that than demoting professional libraries as at MCPL, taking eons to properly computerize and network libraries and offering the same-old, same-old programming.

Here's a few of the drawbacks I was ran up against while at the Milwaukee Public Museum Library and Archives (a special library in a private institution) .
MPM (OCLC code WLE) used to be a major lender to Wisconsin libraries.  However MPM could not afford to use the statewide delivery service as a non-system library, although public libraries constantly used the service to return our materials to Milwaukee Public Library, inconveniencing both MPL and MPM staff in the process. Since UPS was less expensive per package, we opted for that and absorbed the cost of photocopying, postage and faxing for Wisconsin libraries for as long as possible.  Finally things spiraled out of control for all museum finances and library activity was shut down - no more OCLC membership, no more WILS membership, no interloan at all.

Once upon a time the Wisconsin DLTCL paid for downloads of Wisconsin records from OCLC to WISCAT, the statewide database.  This process was  discontinued some years back.  All Wisconsin libraries to export the records from their local online system.  Well that was doable for the libraries with OPACs (frequently funded with LSTA money) but non-public libraries that couldn't afford OPACs were simply abandoned.  My protest/request for an alternative method went into the either. 

Over time most of MPM's lending shifted to out-of-state institutions who were able and willing to pay our very modest cost recovery charges. WIILS (a statewide interloan service used by the larger public library systems and academic and special libraries) checked OCLC and borrowed items from us quite a bit but DLTCL's Reference and Loan Library only borrowed the older items that  were in WISCAT.  Since MPM (or WLE) was the only Wisconsin library holding many items in the popular subject areas of antiques, collectibles, natural history and museology, I assume these requests were unfilled.  

If there has been a mantra drummed into my head in the 35 years since I finished library school, it's that libraries need to change with the times and keeping up with change ain't free (or even cheap).  

Aplogies, if this is all over the place but it's heartfelt and the result of both much  experience and much thought.

Judy Turner
Whitefish Bay, WI
 

"Larry T. Nix" <nix at libraryhistorybuff.org> wrote: It is illegal to charge fees for library programs or any other public
library service in Wisconsin.  Charging fees for library services runs
counter to the concept of the free public library which dates back to the
establishment of the Peterborough Town Library in New Hampshire 175 years

       
---------------------------------
You rock. That's why Blockbuster's offering you one month of Blockbuster Total Access, No Cost.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.webjunction.org/wjlists/publib/attachments/20080403/d919aa85/attachment.htm