Book reservation fees

[MinnieMountain]

Our local library service has upped their book reservation fee from 50p to £2.

Does this seem like a lot? We have 5 libraries which are at most 3 miles apart.

Wow, we have 90p and I find that a lot especially s it is mostly inter-borough lending, we can access books for other boroughs m I would expect that to be a bit more expensive though as there is no daily transport between locations.

For that I’d be looking on amazon for a second hand copy!!!

Ours is 80p which I resent, tbh. Only because my local library has such a poor selection of books despite being the city library. I did a search last week - it holds two Margaret Atwood novels. Two, out of all the novels she's written! Essentially, we are forced to stump up for reservations.

Sometimes I get DS to reserve them because he doesn't get charged

Could be due to people not taking up previous reservations.

Increase to £1 would probably be fairer.

My local library has next to no books these days.

If a book isn't borrowed enough, then it's sold off. So books that you would expect them to have - such as certain health, bereavement, dIY, sewing, etc, etc, are just no longer there

I think that's a policy that can only have been devised by someine who has come from a background of making a profit, rather than thinking about why people use libraries (as opposed to using Amazon)

Yes, I think £2 is too high.

(No, I don't know how to solve library funding crisis)

Ours stopped making any charge at all for reservations within the local (London borough) group of libraries ie they will transfer between different branches, but upped the charge for reservations from wider afield. For those charges there are concessions.

I might ask them how they justify it. Leisure and culture in our city is run by a charity set to for that purpose. They are currently advertising gym membership with no sign up fee

I'm glad it's not just me. I've found the book I was after for £1.85 all in on eBay.

I also agree the stock is woeful. I can get to a local and our main library yet they don't have many well known authors.

Ours used to be £1 and now it's free, which is a surprise. £2 is definitely too expensive.

A lot of books are 99p on kindle sooner or later and you can obtain them to keep forever without having to leave the house. No wonder nobody's using libraries any more.

£2 does sound a bit steep. Ours is 60p. To be fair, libraries have suffered massively from funding cuts, so have to try to make money any way they can.

Does your library offer free online services, such as Libby, RBdigital and Pressreader? You can download books, audiobooks, magazines and newspapers for no charge if so.

Our library charges £1.

Ours charges 80p and I dont agree with the charge. It's fine for me as I have disposable income but many people do not and the library is supposed to be inclusive.

Our library provides other services such as immigration appointments. You would think this would mean that they have received some money from the home office. Considering how much I just spent on a visa renewal I know they aren't losing money on these applications.