mothergooseof4 Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 I see all of these posts about inter-library loans and think???? Then I learned it is often free. Ours charges $5 per book. I can often find a book used on Amazon or Half for that price. Or, I see people say to check out a book from the library to see if you want to purchase it. Ha! I am totally surprised if mine has more than one title per year that I might go looking for. I guess that is a price I am willing to pay to live in a small town. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hjordan423 Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 I know exactly what you mean. We moved from a city that had one of the very best library systems in the country to a small town in another state. I am constantly amazed at how much this library is lacking. I guess I need to lower my expectations or start spending a ton of money on Amazon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ecclecticmum Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 I like my library. Its extremely small (two family caravan size lol), but I can order holds online, and both the branch and interlibrary loans are free (my "Service"/branch has about 7 libraries included in it). :rant: The thing I sit there wondering is what the librarians (there is a LOT of them) DO at the library a few towns over. Its literally a 20-30 minute drive to that library, book is listed online as on the shelf. The truck picks up and delivers the books from that library to mine Tues & Thursdays, I put the order on hold on Sunday, and it JUST SITS THERE STILL ON THE SHELF. The librarians don't seem to go get it till Friday (or sometimes the next week). I have ones that come from small & large libraries hours (4-5 hours) away, and they are there WAY before the ones from this library down the road. I would probably arrange to just go pick them up from there, but we don't go down that way often, plus the librarians there are just rude. My online service advises me if the book is "being fixed" unavailable, in the backroom or anything else, but a lot of the ones coming from there just say "on the shelf" and continue to do so. I really think complaints should be put in to replace the librarians there, I used to live there, and pretty much ignored the library, LOL. I never actually saw any of the librarians come out from behind the desk, they all just sit there until you come up to them, then look down their nose at you. :001_huh: :tongue_smilie: $5 for an interlibrary loan for ONE book! That's crazy! I could understand if it was a "special/antique" type book (possibly paying more for something like that) or some sort of specialized textbook, but for common everyday books, thats a bit too crazy. I don't really use the interlibrary loan, but as far as I am aware, its free. I simply don't use it because since I am in Aus, that could involve planes, semi-trucks or all sort of crazy vehicles and a couple of weeks or more just for that book ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heidi Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 I see all of these posts about inter-library loans and think???? Then I learned it is often free. Ours charges $5 per book. I can often find a book used on Amazon or Half for that price. Or, I see people say to check out a book from the library to see if you want to purchase it. Ha! I am totally surprised if mine has more than one title per year that I might go looking for. I guess that is a price I am willing to pay to live in a small town. ME!! I don't like going because my kids pick up so many dumbed down books, and because I have too many little kids to go into a library. I buy all of our books now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommyto2 Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 Our local library is really small too. It is frustrating that I have never been able to find a non-fiction book that I was looking for. So we order alot from amazon. When we lived in Nashville, Tn we could find every book that Sonlight uses at the library. Now, not so much... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stingyhag Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 Me. Moved here a year ago from a large metro. Have to drive 20 miles to get to the library/JC Penny Museum. Lots of Amazon, Ebay, Betterworldbooks, and Thriftbooks getting ordered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdventureMoms Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 I'm pretty unimpressed with ours. The other libraries in the system seem to not have much either. They just added an audiobook section where you're supposed to be able to check stuff out online...and it's basically all romance novels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsBanjoClown Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 I can never find a lot of the recommended books for SOTW or BFSU. I just pick my own books on the same topic, but I sometimes wonder what, if anything, we are missing out on. I laugh when I read on a curriculum website "should be readily available at your library". I will add that our library does not receive funding from the city, so I think the limited budget that they have is one of the main reasons there is a limited selection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thejourney Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 I'm not sure I'd say our library is terrible but neither would I say that it is good. The books are scattered over multiple branches which means driving around town to get all the books you need. Supposedly you can put the books on hold and pick them all up at one branch but I have found that this rarely works as it should. The interlibrary loan is even worse as our library charges an undisclosed fee for this service (you find out how much you owe when you pick up your books). The book selection is also limited. There are no homeschooling books, little in the way of juvenile classics and very few non fiction books that have been published within the past decade. On the plus side, our library does offer many wonderful free programs for kids and the main library has a nice air conditioned play area for little ones that includes a pretend kitchen, bank, train tables, lego tables, puppet theater etc... I was thrilled to recently discover that I can use my library card at any other library in the state as long as I return the books to the library from which I originally checked out the books. The town over from me has a much more extensive selection and I am very excited to start taking books out from there instead! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momofsbandeg Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 It was 2 story with every book imaginable. Loved, loved it. Then...it was struck by lightning, burned to the ground and was not insured enough to replace everything. So now it is 1/4 the size and I have almost as many children's books as the library has now. It STINKS!!!!! I am never able to find any of the books that I need for school or that I would like to read for fun. So sad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixjen Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 We moved from KY to TX twelve years ago. Our library system in KY was fantastic, but I never appreciated it until we moved here. The one in our little town is so...so...infuriating that DH practically begs me not to go there because I come out with a totally cr@ppy attitude. :tongue_smilie: They shelves their books really weird. They mix all their junior non-fiction in with all the adult books. Which means there is NO WAY I will let DS ever look up books by himself because A) there are weirdos that hang out at the library. Especially if they know kids might be by themselves in the tall stacks. and B) there are too many "adult" books mixed in with the kids books. I really don't need DS exposed to graphic adult novels while looking for Garfield books. :eek: The librarians at both branches are unfriendly, and their online computer system is messed up. You can only put a book on hold if it's already checked out. If it is available you can't put a hold on it online. You have to either call them up, or zip over and hope it's still on the shelf by the time you get there. Thankfully, the city just south of us has an AMAZING library with a much better selection, wonderfully friendly and helpful librarians, keep all their kids books in a section AWAY from the adult books, and their online catalog lets you request books no matter the status. I :001_wub: them to pieces. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpidarkomama Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 We have the exact same problem here in our not-so-big town. Sigh. Total interlibrary loan envy. :) OTOH, the taxes are nice and low! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amy M Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 I'm in Africa. :D In a village. Definitely miss those wonderful American conveniences at times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mazakaal Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 Me too. I have to buy every book that I want for our schoolwork. They may have a few good reference books on a few subjects - British history, Greece, Rome, Egypt, and animals - but that's it. No other referebce books, no curriculum, no historical fiction, no quality children's literature other than a handful of very old classics that I already own anyway. Our library only charges 50p (around 75 cents) for inter library loan, but there's not much in the other libraries in our county either, so it's not much help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pitterpatter Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 Oh, yeah. We now pay $50 a year to use St. Louis County Libraries. We still visit our local libraries, on occassion, but it's strictly for fun. Few school books there. Loans take forever. I just order a big stack online for St. Louis, then run and get them every 2-3 weeks. Money WELL spent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mothergooseof4 Posted July 13, 2012 Author Share Posted July 13, 2012 OP here. Well I love our town so I guess I will just live with the library. There are no others in our county. I can join the one in the next county for a fee, but then I would spend more in gas than I probably do in books. And, at least our librarians are sweet. Oh well! To quote ds yesterday, "I don't like getting books from the library. I want them to be mine. " Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jillian Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 I went out of county to combat the awful-ness of our library system in our county!! My county library online catalog (to put books on hold for example) is so disorganized, it's like they just shove books on a shelf with no organizational system. They also don't have anything educational or if they do it's very minimal. Most books are Dora and Diego or that sort of thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristinannie Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 I see all of these posts about inter-library loans and think???? Then I learned it is often free. Ours charges $5 per book. I can often find a book used on Amazon or Half for that price. Or, I see people say to check out a book from the library to see if you want to purchase it. Ha! I am totally surprised if mine has more than one title per year that I might go looking for. I guess that is a price I am willing to pay to live in a small town. We have two terrible libraries. We were studying South America and there was a total of ONE book between the two libraries. We are charged $2 per book on ITL. A couple of times they have purchased books I have requested, but it takes awhile and I am impatient! :tongue_smilie: So, I have started to make my own library at home. That is the main reason that the UPS truck brings me orders from Amazon.com almost daily. :lol::lol::lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathryn Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 It was 2 story with every book imaginable. Loved, loved it. Then...it was struck by lightning, burned to the ground and was not insured enough to replace everything. So now it is 1/4 the size and I have almost as many children's books as the library has now. It STINKS!!!!! I am never able to find any of the books that I need for school or that I would like to read for fun. So sad. :crying: I have two pretty decent library systems near me. DH wants to move and one of my biggest fears is an awful library system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsPisky Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 I like our library for the most part. However, they do not have a lot of the books I'm looking for. I found out this week that we can join the library in the next county over for free. Hopefully we'll get a better assortment of what we want between the two library systems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kesmom Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 I like ours for the most part. The only downside is that you can't do online request for a book that is on the shelf. Dh could get a card through his job for the next city over (huge system, multiple locations) but I'm not sure I want to keep up with 2 library stashes at this point. Maybe when the kids are older..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommy22alyns Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 Yup, ours is pretty bad and our ILL costs too. And the worst thing is, you have to pay even if they can't find the book! :confused: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mothergooseof4 Posted July 14, 2012 Author Share Posted July 14, 2012 Ah, a couple more things ours don't have, online reserving or ebooks. They just got an online catalog. I have thought about donating many of our books when we finish them. That way we would still have access to them in the future, others could benefit from them, and I wouldn't have to store them. But I am afraid they wouldn't have the shelf space and would get rid of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckens Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 A part of the issue is library leadership. We have incredible leadership in our library, which is the best run of any that I have ever seen in our life! They harness tons of volunteers from special needs individuals, to a teen volunteer core, to people to man the bookstore. They also utilize the skills of their people to the utmost. The leadership granted one employee the time and support to write a couple of children's books about our library and bookmobile (Smyles the Dog). Another very talented children's employee DESIGNS --yes DESIGNS! -- elaborate summer programs for the kids...and teens...and adults. She also designs the window display, in which she has even turned her childhood doll into a mermaid to decorate the ocean display. (She used the undersea netting to hide the one hand where she had chewed off the fingers as a child). Likewise, our leadership always says their success is based on community support. The city council supports funding for the role of the library, and our community recently passed a bond to expand the physical size of our library. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootAnn Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 My local library is awful. They too charge for inter library loan. Their collection is dismal for children. The librarians are grouchy. ... Half the shelves are empty in that place and they are currently expanding the library. Why!? This is our library! Do you know why they are expanding our library? To add more room for COMPUTERS. People don't go to our library to check out books. They go to use the computers & the free Wi-Fi. The head librarian & the children's librarian are both grouchy. The others are nice, but not very helpful. (I think librarians should actually read, so they know what to suggest to people. I don't think our librarians actually read the books. They definitely don't ever suggest other titles -- even when my kids ask!) The funny thing is that there is a 15-book limit PER FAMILY at our local library. I have FIVE KIDS. We go to the local library multiple times per week. It isn't enough. They got the message & finally let homeschoolers have 25 books out at a time. (We bump up against this limit frequently during the school year.) I pay $50 a year to use a library in another town. They don't charge for inter library loans. They offer e-books. They are extremely friendly and helpful. We pay $75/year to use the Big City library with multiple branches, online book holding, and a much better selection. Totally worth it. Each kid can have their own library card. Each library card can have 40 items checked out at at time. Our biggest problem is not turning in the Big City books to the local library & vice versa. The Big City people don't mind, but the local library people look at you like you've been cheating on them. :001_huh: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kubiac Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 I have no complaints, just much sympathy for "library inequity." We are blessed to have easy access to the resources of both the Los Angeles city and Los Angeles county libraries, which means we have blessedly free access to about 15 million volumes. Each individual branch is small and limited, but through the free hold system we can get just access to many, many other books. That said, we casually visited the Beverly Hills Library last week and I realized, "Oh, gee, so this is what wealth can afford you." They weren't bogged down with supplying almost exclusively popular materials--they had the luxury of collecting really wonderful but less flashy materials. They had a huge array of materials for a small city library. They had original illustrations from children's books framed on the walls. All the materials were in bright, shiny condition. The librarians clearly had time to hand-select excellent materials for displays for the kids. Even the discards at the Friends of the Library Bookstore were things I coveted! Don't get me wrong, we're not wanting for books by any stretch, but I was just amazed at the visible qualitative difference available to a community that had chosen to value books and had substantial resources to do so! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JulieE Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 We pay $50 to use the library the next city over. Every other city around has a free participation program - guess our city is cheap:glare: But for me the $50 is worth it: access to the programs, the books/audiobooks I can find.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kalmia Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 We moved from a county seat in PA with the greatest library to a county seat in NY with just the most pathetic library imaginable. It is housed in a historic building, which is lovely from the outside, but cramped and dangerous inside. Strollers cannot fit through the stacks, there aren't very many books, and the older children's books are housed on a balcony accessed by a scary stairway and with dangerously wide spacing between the balcony railings. I always had to hold my 2 year old while we were looking at books for fear she would plunge to her death. Needless to say, I'm an Amazon devotee now. From what I've gathered from the local newspaper our townspeople pride themselves on voting down the library budget every year. The library purchased some land for a new building, and hordes of people came out to fight them. There was even some kind of coup on the board of directors with anti-library citizens taking some of the seats to "rein in" the librarians. I can't believe I live in a town that does not support it's library. I'm from Maine where when one coastal library burnt down one townsperson donated his garage as a temporary library while many of the other townspeople donated books until the new library could be built. The library can be the heart of a town. Just not here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
librarymama Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 Sad, but for the past decade or more funding for libraries has swiftly declined nationwide. Libraries are often the first services to get cut. I understand that it is a bummer to pay for a library service, when traditionally we think of libraries as being free. However, Interlibrary Loan is actually a very expensive service. I think those who get it for free should rejoice. In my opinion, $5 for a librarian to spend time to research/contact another library to borrow it, that library to spend time pulling and shipping the item, and then your library pay to ship it back - hey, $5 is a bargain. If you really can get it cheaper on Amazon, I say go for it! I personally only use ILL for books I can't get on Amazon used for super cheap. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crafty Mathy Mom Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 My library does this with donations. They all end up in their book sales. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jocelyne Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 I used to gripe about my library charging 25-cents for each hold that I request. But then I realized majority of the books I place on hold come from other libraries in the county and that 25-cents is a bargain considering I don't do any of the driving and only have to walk down the street every few days to collect the holds. We do go through LOTS of books each month, but I can't beat $25 for 100 books, which is about our monthly average. I just started budgeting accordingly and stopped griping! And also very carefully selected the books I put on hold to make sure they were quality books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SFM Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 We live in Japan on a tiny military base, we have VERY limited selection. I feel I spend more on books than curriculum (especially with shipping), although, we usually love all of our books and know they will be worth the investment. I think I took my local library branch for granted when we were in the States, we lived near D.C. and there was so much. Ah, well tis a season and I suppose we will leave here with lots of great literature! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maverick_Mom Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 Our library system is probably average, but compared to where we moved from, it's sadly lacking. I can use ILL but it takes *forever.* I don't use ILL for anything school-related because I have no idea when to expect my requests. It makes me sad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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