New borrowing limits start Oct. 15

image of books on hold at Seattle Public Library courtesy of Fecki via Flickr

Just a reminder that new limits on check-outs and holds, overdue fines on all borrowed items, and a fee for loans from other library systems begin Thursday, Oct. 15. The changes help address the high demand for limited items during tough economic times. We’ve cut our budget by $1 million this year and are preparing to cut another $2.6 million next year. You can still receive holds from all branches of The Seattle Public Library without paying a fee. The loan fee applies only to items that customers ask us to borrow from other library systems. Please check this pdf for details.

The city librarian welcomes comments, at city.librarian@spl.org

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4 responses to “New borrowing limits start Oct. 15”

  1. J

    I understand the need to ration services in a high-demand time. I’m curious, though, whether the intention is to remove the rationing once the economy settles down. The last bullet item under the rationale for the changes seems to imply perhaps not? “Bring borrowing limits and fees in line with other library systems”.

    Reply
  2. Library Communications

    Dear J:
    Thanks for the question, and for understanding the reasoning behind the changes. We’re not anticipating an economic recovery any time soon – in fact we’ve been asked to cut $2.6 million from our 2010 budget and have been warned 2011 doesn’t look much better – so these changes are in place for the foreseeable future. Before we’d recommend anything different we’d need to re-evaluate demand, revenue, workload, staffing, etc.

    Bringing limits and fees in line with other systems means that we looked at what the neighboring libraries were doing, much as a retail outlet would check the prices of its competitors. Bottom line answer? It’s possible, but it’s not on the horizon at present. Thanks again.

    Reply
  3. Christoph Heck

    I understand the limit on books checked out at a time. But whey the limit on holds, both active and suspected? How does that save money when the hold list is a fully automated software application involving no human intervention?

    Reply
  4. Library Communications

    Dear Christoph,
    Thanks for the question. Our research showed that 7 percent of borrowers had more than 25 holds at any one time, yet their requests accounted for more than 44 percent of the total requests. So the revisions are intended to maximize resources.

    We hope the holds limit: allows titles to circulate more quickly; reduces the number of pending holds on titles; encourages patrons to prioritize placing holds on titles they need or want (some people don’t pick up all the holds they request, which adds to the time an item is out of circulation); reduces the number of copies of popular titles the Library needs to buy (which will stretch our book and materials budget); reduces staff workload; and reduces stress on our technical systems.

    That, of course, remains to be seen. We need to gain experience with the new limits and see how they work. We hope they’re effective but if they aren’t we’ll need to figure out how to respond. Thanks again.

    Reply

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