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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to want books to be free, at least the ones I want to read?

39 replies

Fillyjonk · 20/02/2008 13:17

I have it all sorted out

writers get paid a stipend by the state (at least writers I like)

and then we increase taxation for the top rate of tax payers by about 400% to pay for printing costs

and thusly my monthly amazon bill disapperars

(seriously, the books I want just aren't IN the libraries or on any of the bookswap sites-wtf am I meant to do, other than bankrupt myself, or else not read them? It just doesn't seem right...)

OP posts:
bookwormmum · 20/02/2008 13:19

why not ask the library to order them?

your favourite writers will get paid according to how many people borrow or request their work...

harpsichordcarrier · 20/02/2008 13:23

you can always ask for an interlibrary transfer
exactly how weird are these books

sparklesandwine · 20/02/2008 13:35

bloody hell what sort of book DO you read

VictorianSqualor · 20/02/2008 13:42

Do you have a small local library? I do, but it is adjoined to the whole county so can be ordered in from a nother branch. I rarely find what I want at my library.
Or..
What books do you want, people here may have them.

Zazette · 20/02/2008 13:51

My sis is a librarian, she would definitely say you should ask the library to order them - they have all sorts of constraints on their ordering policies, so she is delighted when people ask her for things that enable her to broaden the orders beyond local history and family sagas.

TotalChaos · 20/02/2008 13:52

rofl. I sympathise. I like semi-obscure US crime fiction and/or crime fiction in translation, so I have this problem too.

Oblomov · 20/02/2008 14:04

I hate our library. I have to order everything. I mean ANY book I want, from
Trinny & Suz books
How to talk/listen ....
Alfie Kohn
I love you bit I'm not....
Flat stanley
Jeremy James

At £1.00 per go, for ever order, it soon adds up and this really hacks me off !

fishie · 20/02/2008 14:07

£1 a go is steep, can you join another county or borough's library? i'm a member of three and only one them charges. also if you order something and they can't produce it they will often buy it for you so do go for nice obscure things.

MrsTittleMouse · 20/02/2008 15:27

Oblomov, I have the same problem. My local library (within walking distance and a great place to hang out with DD) seems to have no turnover at all. I have read all the stuff that I really like and am desperate for them to get some new stuff in! But too cheap to pay a pound to order something that I'll read in a couple of days.

marina · 20/02/2008 15:34

Actual cost of a standard interlibrary loan is at least £5, so £1 is a subsidised amount
Zazette's dsis is right - library staff at the front line are increasingly not given any latitude to choose stock at all (or the budget to buy it), so the more library users who make their feelings known by requesting titles, asking to see the branch or borough Acquisitions Policy, politely kicking up a fuss about this, the better.
The usual town hall response to concerns about stock profiles is "there is no demand". Prove them wrong.

Heathcliffscathy · 20/02/2008 15:36

i want to know the names of the books too filly

posieflump · 20/02/2008 15:38

in our library we have 'you choose' cards where you can write suggestions for stock
it is 25p for a book that is from another library within the county and £2 for a book outside the library

posieflump · 20/02/2008 15:38

£2 for an inter library loan that is, 25p from a branch within the county

MrsTittleMouse · 20/02/2008 15:48

Ah, that's interesting marina. Maybe I should talk to the librarians about it.

marina · 20/02/2008 15:50

I really would MrsT. You will probably find them all ears

Notalone · 20/02/2008 16:21

Can't believe how many of you are charged for requesting books. My lovely library does it all the time for me free. I just assumed it was included as part of the council tax.

bookwormmum · 20/02/2008 16:27

We're charged £1 to reserve a copy from within the library catalogue which encompasses 3-4 London Boroughs.

get a reader's ticket to the British Library - they have a copy of all work published within in the UK. You might have to read it within the library though... .

marina · 20/02/2008 16:37

Notalone, then you are very lucky to be within an old-style library authority where the budget still extends to providing free ILLs

ibblewob · 20/02/2008 16:45

I get charged I think 60p for an inter-library loan (East London Borough) but they are excellent - covers the whole of London and I've been able to get everything I've wanted so far. Agree that you should try that. Only bummer is I have to wait weeks

Oblomov · 20/02/2008 18:13

I don't mind waiting weeks, but I still think that £1 to order a book, from within the Surrey, is a bit steep.
I love tking ds to the library. But £1 each time, is a bit much.
Its not my fault that my, infact all three local libraries have tiny stock.
I don't know where all the copies of..... how to talk/listen etc are, but not in our three libraries, it seems - I mean come on, that is just rubbish.

fishie · 20/02/2008 21:57

oblomov don't you have online service? this is really the enemy of what marina is saying but you should be able to order more books yourself.

my local library has UNIFORMS for staff. it is an outrage.

camden provide an excellent traditional library service, so do join if you can since i doubt it will last.

Original poster
Fillyjonk · 21/02/2008 07:46

interlibrary loans are, iirc, £5 here

might as well buy the book , esp since we then only get it for 3 weeks

OP posts:
Original poster
Fillyjonk · 21/02/2008 07:53

they are not especially obscure books

the stuff I can't get at the exact moment is stuff like alfie kohn, vivian paley, john holt

but am also after some "we are on the way to ruin" type stuff-garbageland, tescopoly, etc.

And some specific popular science books.

wouldn't mind some decent knitting books either.

These are books that I could probably expect to find in a large branch of borders.

This is a constant problem though. My library seems to stock bascially Catherine Cookson and Maisy. I even have to get Shirley Hughes ordered in...Even if a book shows up on the catalogue, 7/10 its been nicked

I do envy you all in London. I grew up there and had tickets for all the boroughs I could get to easily (so Camden, Westminster-Sunday opening!-Barnet, Brent and Islington.) It was fabulous and made up for my piss poor school library.

OP posts:
casbie · 21/02/2008 08:51

our local library has replaced librarians (lovely all of them) with in/out machines...

just try asking a machine where the knitting section is!

i despair!

ibblewob · 21/02/2008 09:39

at the £5 - plus my library has also got those 'in-out' machines, although our librarians still appear to be in residence (sp?), probably as the majority of users don't seem to be able to work them out (they're very tempramental - always a long line of complainers at the counter)!

Have you come across ABEbooks? It's a website which lists the stock of second hand bookshops in the UK and worldwide - I used it loads when I was a student - bought a book from India that was cheaper than getting it in the UK! There's loads of John Holt on there for about 50p (prob still under £4 inc. postage).