Posted on 12/26/2009 7:49:11 AM PST by GOPsterinMA
With the crippled economy forcing more Bay Staters to dust off library cards, local lending institutions are throwing the book at overdue scofflaws, turning them over to the cops and courts in a hard-nosed bid to collect fines and recover costly tomes and DVDs.
“The value of the materials is fairly high. We need to replace them,” said Martha Holden, director of the Peabody Institute Library, which has sent the law after a trio of overdue culprits.
The Peabody library filed criminal complaints against 19-year-old Alyssa Toste and 23-year-old Jeramie Crane on Dec. 15. Despite repeated notices, both Toste and Crane failed to return more than $500 worth of overdue books, DVDs, music CDs, books on tape and other items, Holden said.
Toste and Crane did not respond to requests for comment.
(Excerpt) Read more at bostonherald.com ...
You also need to be careful checking those items out. One time, I borrowed an opera on 3 CDs. When I got home, one of the CDs was missing out of the case. Naturally the library expected me to replace it for them and operas on CD aren't cheap - it costed me almost $50 from Amazon.com to replace the entire set as it is impossible to buy just one of the CDs separately.
However, the library has always been reasonable with me with regard to replacing lost or damaged materials. So♠ long as I replace the item, they never try to get additional fines or damages out of me.
It sounds like what the library put your daughter through was totally unreasonable. Either she's not telling you the whole story or the people running that library are complete knuckleheads. I'd call Town Hall and write a letter to the editor of the local newspaper about it.
I totally disagree with that. Yes, the Internet has made it much easier to do research at home but the local libraries still have a huge trove of materials that just can't be found on the Internet - especially regarding research on a local level.
Also, unless a book is in the public domain, you are simply not going to be able to download it over the Internet and even if you wanted to buy it, there are many thousands of titles out of print that you can only find in a library.
I would agree that public libraries have gotten away from their main purpose which is to give citizens access to educational materials that otherwise would only be available to those that could afford it. I do NOT believe that the purpose of a public library is to provide entertainment such as videogames, movies and pop music.
That is not to say that libraries shouldn't offer any multimedia items at all. I can see documentaries on DVD of the Civil War for example, but I just don't see how lending out DVD copies of "Weekend At Bernie's" or "Porky's Revenge" do anything to educate the public. Ditto for music, I can see the symphonies of Beethoven being offered by public libraries but Britney Spears Greatest Hits? I don't think so.
Sounds good all the way up until you want to check out a B&T leased book, those things come with a hefty price tag for the library. And they’re best sellers, so there’s a really good chance you’ll want 1 or more B&Ts and there goes your allotment.
You’ve missed some very funny shows.
I guess so.
One of my favorite Seinfeld episodes EVER!
Try Free Libraries. We have them in Massachusetts. They are founded by the private sector, usually an industrialist who did well and wants to pay the community back. Financially, they are better managed than the public libraries. I think the public ones are staffed with communists.
Interesting. I will check one out, do you know of any north of Boston?
*The simple solution is to dissolve public libraries. They are useless nowadays.*
That’s the simple-minded solution. Your local library must suck.
*One can find information on the Internet in less than a few seconds.*
Some can, some can’t. Ever try to get a child to learn to read by using the internet?
*It takes one an hour to go the library, look up a holding, and check it out.*
Doesn’t your library have e-books?
*I cringe everytime talk comes up about modernizing out library. Half the cost will go to meeting disability access laws - more ramps, elevators, and short stacks that can be reached from a wheelchair meaning fewer books per square foot of floor area. *
Those f*cking gimps! How dare they want to get into the library.
And we wonder where conservatives get their reputations?
*Unlike a Costco, a library card is free.
I would charge $30 per adult library card and $10 for kids...or $50 for a family card.*
Your very existence as a taxpayer in the locality in which the library is formed is your membership fee...and as far as “investments” go, the return on libraries is phenomenal. Instead of building stadium upon stadium for millionaires to enjoy 8 or 82 times per year, build one library per zip code and staff it with people who know what they are doing. A well-educated populace would result in less liberals.
Here is a link to all Massachusetts libraries. It includes free libraries. You can tell a free library because it uses the word free in its name.
It looks rather bleak for free libraries north of Boston. Most free libraries are westward.
Nevada
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