energy2c Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 a year for library privileges? The next city over has a great library and a friend is currently letting use her card since she rarely goes. The card will expire soon and I need to decide if I will renew it. This library has a great reading book club, computer programs, childrens programs, vast educational dvds, LOF books, all history books used for SOTW, foreign language resources, much more and access to other libraries in the network. Husband thinks im crazy for considering paying $300 per year. I can get by with my city's libraries they are not bad but I love this library. Opinions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angie in VA Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Can you volunteer at the library and get those privileges? It sounds great, but that is too much for me. For that annual fee, I could stock my home library with a lot of goodies. Maybe not all those that library system has, but certainly a lot of great sources. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmilyGF Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Princeton NJ was $400/year because that is what owners pay in property taxes. There is no way I would have paid that, especially because I learned to make due with our neighborhood library. Now, $85/year for the Santa Clara library system when I lived in Santa Cruz was worth it because SCruz was so lousy. Emily Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
energy2c Posted January 8, 2014 Author Share Posted January 8, 2014 I didnt even think to ask about volunteering. I will have to give it a try thanks for the idea. We do have a good home library since ive been buying books ahead of schedule. I can afford the fee but like you id rather spend that money elsewhere. I should probably take time after it expire to see if I can make do without going to that library. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Uh, no. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melmichigan Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 No I would not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 No. For $300 per year I can purchase a LOT of used books as well as plenty of TC lectures through audible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlsdMama Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 I would consider it, but it would depend on the resource value.... For example, let's say you have a dyslexic child and you use enormous audio resources and the library has it. I'd you have only one child, it could be worth it. However, I'd you have multiple children, know that that $300 is per year.... Ten years from now you may wish you had invested that $3,000 in your own library, kwim? For $300 they wold have to have amazing resources that were valuable rather than just entertaining. Does your library not do inter - library loan? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hjffkj Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Nope, even if I could afford it with no problem. $300/year I could buy a lot of great thing for my home library Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slache Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Interlibrary Loan System. You can get books from thousands of libraries for free. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 No, I would add to my home library. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
threeofakind Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Maybe I'm naive, but I have never heard of paying for a library card- is this more than just getting a card to check things out- just a little thrown off here. But I guess it is weighing your options and if the things you need when you need them will be available to check out! ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
energy2c Posted January 8, 2014 Author Share Posted January 8, 2014 It does have inter-library loan but it still wouldn't be up to par with the other library's books/resources. I may just have very serious library envy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie of KY Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 If you are paying for services (that you will use) it might be an investment. I wouldn't pay for it just for library privileges that I can buy the books or get them on interlibrary loan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmilyGF Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 While I used to consider ILL standard, I've learned some cash-strapped libraries don't have it. Our current library only lets you reserve 3 books at a time, which can often take 3+ weeks to show up *even* when they are on the shelf of another library as you put them on hold, and puts your card on freeze if you have a fine of $0.20. There are some truly difficult-to-use libraries around. Emily Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
energy2c Posted January 8, 2014 Author Share Posted January 8, 2014 Threeofakind: If you are not a resident of the city in which the library is located and therefore dont pay property taxes and would like to take out material or what have you. You can purchase a yearly card for $300. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KarenNC Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 a year for library privileges? The next city over has a great library and a friend is currently letting use her card since she rarely goes. The card will expire soon and I need to decide if I will renew it. This library has a great reading book club, computer programs, childrens programs, vast educational dvds, LOF books, all history books used for SOTW, foreign language resources, much more and access to other libraries in the network. Husband thinks im crazy for considering paying $300 per year. I can get by with my city's libraries they are not bad but I love this library. Opinions? Depends. Things I would consider: 1) Do you have to have a library card to participate in the book club, the children's programs, or other in person activities? In our area you don't. 2) How many of these programs are online? In our area, most of the online programs for the library are actually from the state, but accessed by your library card from your local library. Do they have the option for an internet resource-only card for a lesser fee? Would they consider it? There are at least some libraries around the country that offer that to non-residents for a much smaller fee than $300, or at least there were a couple of years ago when I was looking for access to Rosetta Stone (before they took it out of all libraries). Are the particular programs you want to consider available via another provider? How much would that cost? 3) Is there a local college or university, especially one with an education dept? You may want to look into how much a community borrower's card is for that and what sort of resources they offer. We happen to live close to the university from which my husband graduated and they give alumni free community borrower cards now (previously, we paid about $35 a year to have full access and borrowing privileges). 4) How many of the educational dvds are available on something like Netflix or Amazon streaming (or dvd)? 5) What's the price of all the educational books you mention you want that aren't available at your library? 6) Do they have a history of raising access fees? I would hate to invest $300 this year, then have it go up next year. Is there a fee for using ILL at your library or at this one? How much? 7) How often do you access the physical resources? Is it convenient on a regular basis or do you have to schedule a trip for that, adding gas and time to the actual cost of using the library? 8) Do they have an extended loan program for educators so that you can keep the books out longer if needed to use them as curricula, or is it just that you could get them for long enough to decide whether or not to buy (which isn't bad in and of itself)? Would you have access to that as an out of county borrower? If it's just the opportunity to look at materials hands-on, could you schedule a trip to the library occasionally, perhaps to coincide with a free kids' program, and just look at the books while you wait? 9) Do they have an online catalog and the ability to put books on hold online? If so, is there a limit to the number of holds at a given time? Is it large enough to work with your schedule of being at the branch? Can you put books from the entire system on hold and pick them up at the branch most convenient to you? The hold option becomes very important if your branch doesn't have a copy of what you need and it has to come from another area of the system. 10) Is the checkout time for things like dvds long enough to reasonably use them? Ours is only one night for many dvds, which often hasn't been enough time for us to get it, watch it and get it back conveniently because of our schedule. Books can be out for 3 weeks and can't be renewed if someone else has requested the book. The hold list for new, popular books in our system can have hundreds of people and take several weeks or months for our turn to come up, which takes up slots in our hold queue. 11) Will the fee cover individual cards for everyone in the household, or just one card? If all of those factors work out and are worth $300 a year to you, then go for it. I do understand library envy :). We have a paid card to the library system in the next town as out of county borrowers, but we lucked out and paid $100 for lifetime access (the yearly fee was $25 at the time so the decision to spend the extra was a struggle). It turned out that they dropped that option the next year. My husband works in that county within walking distance of a branch and we use it very regularly, but he's not in the office every day, which limits our use of their dvd collection. Our fee covers an individual card for each person in our household, which expands the numbers of holds we can have at one time from 20 to 60. We also have access to ILL through them and would not through our county library, but don't have access to their educator extended loan program. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Why can't your friend just renew it and you continue to borrow the card? ETA--OIC, your friend doesn't live in the next town over? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
energy2c Posted January 8, 2014 Author Share Posted January 8, 2014 Chris in Va: She no longer lives in the town therefore I'm just using the card till it expires. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haiku Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Absolutely not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QuirkyKapers Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 No. For $300 per year I can purchase a LOT of used books as well as plenty of TC lectures through audible. :iagree: My thoughts exactly. I guess it would just depend how much you get out books versus the cost. Also, if you were trying not to clutter up your house with books, that would be another benefit to pay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
73349 Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Possibly. Our library system carries no DVDs; hold request fulfillments are unpredictable (tomorrow? three weeks?) and I've found ILL to be unacceptably slow when materials are available at all. I do not have a second child to reuse books with and have limited access to used book stores/sales. So if I had access to their catalog, I'd make a list of things I could avoid buying in the next year by borrowing instead, not available at the free library. Does it add up to $300? Even when I factor in the cost of driving farther? Quite possibly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shellydon Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Maybe. I like libraries. We use two systems. One of them tallies how much money we would have spent on books if we had bought them rather than borrowed. In 2013 we borrowed over $8000 worth of books and audio-books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G5052 Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Maybe when mine were small, although I had extremely limited funds then and probably couldn't have afforded that. I used to spend less than $500/year on materials and field trips for two kids. When they were little we went to the library weekly with a laundry basket :thumbup1: . When we "read out" that library of their easy chapter books, we went to one 30 minutes away several times a month. Libraries were very, very important to us at that point. Now with teens, DH and I are the primary library users. The local county library and the college library has the majority of what we need, and I still go to the one 30 minutes away every other month or so. But I wouldn't pay for the more distant one now. Another factor is the availability of e-books. I'm using those more and more personally, both through Amazon and the local systems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnM Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 $300…..NO WAY! When we moved here I found out that the next county from us (the major metro library system) was $25/year or a one time fee of $100. I paid the $25 the first year, thinking we were most likely not staying in this area for 4 years!!!!!! We have now been here almost 9 years! The following year I was told the fee would go up to $45 or I could still get in on the $100 deal but that the one time fee option was going away permanently. I paid the $100 the last day possible and I am so glad I did because the fee is now $65/year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitten18 Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Maybe. I like libraries. We use two systems. One of them tallies how much money we would have spent on books if we had bought them rather than borrowed. In 2013 we borrowed over $8000 worth of books and audio-books.I agree. I would definitely consider joining the library. We use the library a lot, we check out well over 100 audio books a year. It would be VERY expensive to replicate that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angie in VA Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Maybe. I like libraries. We use two systems. One of them tallies how much money we would have spent on books if we had bought them rather than borrowed. In 2013 we borrowed over $8000 worth of books and audio-books. Wow! Neat feature. I could do something like that myself. $300…..NO WAY! When we moved here I found out that the next county from us (the major metro library system) was $25/year or a one time fee of $100. I paid the $25 the first year, thinking we were most likely not staying in this area for 4 years!!!!!! We have now been here almost 9 years! The following year I was told the fee would go up to $45 or I could still get in on the $100 deal but that the one time fee option was going away permanently. I paid the $100 the last day possible and I am so glad I did because the fee is now $65/year. Yep, those prices always increase. Glad you got in on that deal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
energy2c Posted January 9, 2014 Author Share Posted January 9, 2014 Thank you all for the great ideas and advice. My 5yr old is into audio books. She goes through 2-3 per week. I know there's the subscription to audible but that seems pricey too considering our usage. I know book wise I may not need or can do without this library. It just draws me in with its huge selection of audiobooks, 3-4 different language resources, and the access to the other great libraries with even better selections. Ill probably suck it up and go with out buying the card for now. The reason I second guess myself is because right now im just teaching a laid back kindergarten. By the fall is when I plan on being more structured and perhaps I may need resources I dont at the moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KarenNC Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 A couple of other thoughts---- If you decide not to renew the card at this point, will you have the opportunity to get one in the future on your own or is this your only window of opportunity? If you don't renew, make a point this year of keeping a running list of things you missed out on (and their cost if you went elsewhere) or money you had to spend on resources because of not renewing the card. That will give you a good basis for making the call in the future. If you do renew, make a point of keeping a running list of what you would have had to spend on resources you use from that library. That will give you a good feel for whether it's worth the money. I looked at a similar set of choices when making the decision to buy a year of Discovery Streaming at one point ($200), when deciding whether to buy a year of access to Digital Theatre Plus ($75), etc. Will/did I use it enough to make it worth the money? I will also say that I would have found that expense for homeschooling much more beneficial when my daughter was in elementary than it would be now, because I could pull together so much more on my own from the library at that age than I feel comfortable doing for high school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
threeofakind Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Threeofakind: If you are not a resident of the city in which the library is located and therefore dont pay property taxes and would like to take out material or what have you. You can purchase a yearly card for $300. Thanks! Get it now, I have no access of another library off my island so never heard of this! ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eight_gregorys Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 I have. We've lived in a lot of places. Raleigh, NC has the best library system I ever seen. I lived one county over and paid $50 a year to use it. I would have spent more, if needed. It really was that awesome and had tons of homeschool friendly items. Here our library is ok. I wish I had access to a better one. I would spend that if there was a really good, better option. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AimeeM Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 No way. I could buy those things, easily, for less than that, and keep them :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted January 15, 2014 Share Posted January 15, 2014 Interlibrary Loan System. You can get books from thousands of libraries for free. Our local library charges a minimum of $3.00 per inter-library loan book. I pay $120 for library membership in our neighboring city. The library there is far larger than in my city, and I find this to be money well spent. Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom22ns Posted January 16, 2014 Share Posted January 16, 2014 I used to pay $50 a year to get access to the library in the county next to us. It is huge and wonderful and closer than any branch of the library in my county. They raised their rates to $75 last year and my county library improved their ILL availability. Now I have access to all the expensive library's resources for free - yay! I do pay more for gas, but hopefully not that much more. I wouldn't pay $300, but only you can price out the resources you would lose and know if it is really worth it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted January 16, 2014 Share Posted January 16, 2014 I'd consider joining Philadelphia Free Library if all I wanted was the electronic stuff http://libwww.freelibrary.org/register/getcard1.cfm but I might consider it as a sort of financial support for a nice library I would wonder two other things * can you join for a part year? * can you attend programming and access materials in the library without joining? Also, you could try living without the library for a little while and seeing how it goes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted January 16, 2014 Share Posted January 16, 2014 No, not at that price. I could buy used copies of most of the books I need for that, easily. I pay $20 to use the library of the next county over, and that's perfectly reasonable, imo. I get my money's worth. $300 would be more than I'm willing to pay, especially since the library in my city is decent (just small). ILL at both my libraries is NOT free, so I never use that. I might as well buy the book used on Amazon instead of paying $3.99 for ILL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom2pandc Posted January 16, 2014 Share Posted January 16, 2014 Does your state have an inter-library access card? In Indiana libraries are supported by property taxes. If your area doesn't pay property taxes to a library system, you have to get a non-resident card from the library of your choice (the fees vary based on the library you choose). But if you have a library card through your local library you can sometimes use it at other local libraries (called reciprocal borrowing) or you can purchase a PLAC card (public library access card) that allows you to use any library in the state. It costs about $60 a year. Might want to ask some questions and find out if there is a cheaper option. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
energy2c Posted January 19, 2014 Author Share Posted January 19, 2014 Thank you all for the great responses and ideas. Ive done a lot of research and made calls to various libraries. It looks like you guys may have just saved me $300 :hurray: 1 good library does accept reciprocal borrowing but limits it to 10 items. Not too bad considering i only use it while my daughter attends classes at a nearby University. Already found great material there the last few weeks. The major score has been the 2nd amazing main library i have been using with a lot of perks. I asked at the circulation desk about reciprocal borrowing and the lady informed me all i have to do is register my existing library card. She stated that there were no limits to checkout items. :hurray: I will call again tomorrow to verify with a head librarian but im excited. I just discovered they have a Big homeschooling section. Im talking an overhead sign and shelves and shelves of homeschooling curriculum. :svengo: Just a quick look i discovered Artistic Persuits, all the Five In a Row books, all the SOTW books, all the HWOT teacher manuals, and a lot of math curriculum including some Singapore math books. THANK YOU guys so much!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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