Re: LM_NET Digest - 3 Jun 1996 - Special issue

[Francine Eppelsheimer <franepp@EXECPC.COM>]

I am sure I will get a lot of discussion on this but... I read with interest
the librarian who took her son to Barnes and Noble Bookstore to buy a book
rather than to the local library.  I, too, have been using the bookstore for
my paperbacks.  For expensive books I still go to the library.  At the local
library I always have to wait several months for popular titles.  The fines,
though, are my biggest concern.  The fines now are ten cents a day.  This
adds up very quickly.  For example, a few weeks ago my son had returned an
overdue copy of Hiroshima by John Hersey.  The library copy was in very bad
shape.  The cover was half torn off and the inside pages were beginning to
get unglued (he got it this way).  They charged $1.50 in fines for a book
that originally cost 2.99.  I was at half- priced books the next day and saw
the same copy for .99.  We could have gotten the title cheaper and forever
if we had gone to half-priced books in the first place.  Granted, we could
have been responsible and renewed the book and  not paid a fine. This brings
up another concern, the library will not renew books over the telephone.  I
feel the public libraries need to be careful how they treat their patrons...
I know my property taxes are very high in Wisconsin and we support our
public institutions but when they increased the fines to a dime/day it only
caused resentment.  I am a big supporter of public libraries.  I used to
work in one and still substitute in the summer.
Francine Eppelsheimer
Middle School Library
University School of Milwaukee
Milwaukee, WI 53217
414/352-6000 x 2250