[Growster...]

KCC have suddenly plonked a new 80p charge per item on ordering books. The service used to be free, but in the distant past there was a smaller charge.

I suppose that there are costs involved, but because they keep the same books in the same libraries, it becomes a bit boring looking at the same covers every time!

Funnily enough, there is a great charity shop opposite, (our Cottage Hospital) and they are seen as 'competition', as they charge 50p for a book, and there's always something worth getting!

What happens elsewhere?

[madcat]

OCC charge £1 to reserve/order a book from another library - so you have been doing well! 

They are also putting up the printing / photocopying charge to 50p a sheet from 20p.  That is quite some inflation!!    I had worked out it was cheaper to use their facilities with a bit of planning, than have a printer of my own.  And better for the environment.  But it isn't quite so clear cut now. 

[jaydig]

I have used our library for the past ten years or so, and there has always been a 75p charge to reserve books. I don't mind paying that on the odd occasion I've had to use the service if it helps to keep libraries open.  I don't watch much tv, but read instead so my library must save me many hundreds of pounds a year because now I rarely buy books unless they are something that I will keep. Any that I do buy I pass on or take them to my local charity shop.  I've always thought that it's a shame that libraries can't accept book donations from their members and put them into library stock if they have the need or the space.  Given that we live in the computer age I would have thought this would be possible, but apparently not.

[mrs bouquet]

I take out 6 or 7 books every couple of weeks.  I have found that if you order large print it is free, but otherwise you have to pay.   It is the same with overdue fines.  Mrs Bouquet

[Growster...]

"I've always thought that it's a shame that libraries can't accept book donations from their members and put them into library stock if they have the need or the space. "

Apparently they do here in Kent Jay!

We have some great librarians here, and we always have a chat, probably to the annoyance of the other readers...

Mrs Growster devours books, and often reads them again a year later. I tend to take much longer, and - say - in the case of the Dragon Tattoo trilogy (then quadrology - quintology), I got my money's worth because I just had to reread most chapters to get the story right! Mrs Growster even wrote down a list of all the characters and kept it by her as she went through the books - which are some of the best thriller writings I've ever read!

I'm on a Tim Weaver story at the moment, which is so gripping, I have to read nearly all of it two or three times - his style is fantastic! So that would have been worth 80p I suppose (except that I bought it from the charity shop..;0)

[jaydig]

Growster, I wish our library would do the same.  The shelves are often partially empty, and it would help to make the libraries more economical to run.
I'm so glad it's not just me that needs to keep a "dictionary" of the various characters in some author's books. I was beginning to think that the old memory isn't as sharp as it was.
I've not read anything by Tim Weaver, so I'll keep a lookout for something of his to read.

[grinling]

Our library service, LCC, is free for reservations, used to be £1. Our borrow time is now 3 weeks.
We can also get e books for free, which is easy to do.

RNIB have an extensive library of talking books, access is free

[Elaine G]

I worked for 20 years in Essex so used the library near to work. There was never a charge to reserve a book online, but there was if you asked a member of staff to do it for you! I made good use of that service over the years.

So I retired, and with much more time to read, I was disappointed to find that there is a 70p charge in Hertfordshire libraries. It is however a much more sensible way of reading a new book - even if I am 119th on the list at the moment 

Elaine

[Growster...]

I'm never clued up on reading an Ipad, although Mrs Growster alternates from that to a library book! I know that lots of chums here use Kindles too!

Jaydig, this is the Raker series by Tim Weaver!

https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/david-raker/

Fabulous stories, but I didn't realise they had some sort of order at first, but no matter!

Also all Nick Hewson's books and Charles Cumming's are way up there with the Le Carres and Gerald Seymours...

Now all of those ARE worth 80p..;0)

[grinling]

e books can also be read on a computer or a tablet

[Christine]

Last time I tried to reserve anything at our local library it was free. Yes they do accept donations. If these are in good condition, new and virtual unused. Trouble is that these are usually in a rather limited variety of books. What I call the "Catherine Cookson/Nora Roberts school of writing".  Suppose that it's what the world that uses the library reads.

I discovered when I moved up here some 14 years ago that library stock seems to be very much the same throughout the UK.  So I had read most of what there was that interested me. Now retired, the library has been traded in for an Amazon Fire (cheap form of a Kindle) and the Kindle Unlimited subscription. With a smaller space of house now, it saves a lot of space and only reference books (gardening and the odd cook book) are kept in hard copy.

[oldgrunge]

Since retiring, I've given our local library a real hammering! A wonderful service, with friendly, helpful staff. Books are free to reserve ( Well, on line ), and there is also a service called RB Digital, which I think is linked to many libraries. With this, you can download and read lots of magazines for free, many of them gardening. Worth checking out.

[Growster...]

Our village library is abouth the size of a living room, well a large one at that, and used to be a fire station when it was built!

There is a PC and a printer there which is regularly used, and a children's section where we often see mums and dads reading to their children, which is nice!

Like mentioned above, the reservation charge will help to keep it open of course, and that is an issue I didn't think about...