[Grovenet] Re: library fines?

[Eric Canon]

You make a good point about the federal
government wanting to share in library data. It
used to be (and it still may be) that our library
kept track of a whole list of transactions. As
far as demographics were concerned, they knew who
the borrows were, where they came from, how often
they borrowed, etc. etc. As a point of interest,
Forest Grove is visited by patrons as far away as
Vernonia, Yamhill and Carlton, as well as all the
communities west of here. I wish Alana or
Nuzriter would give us some details. Colleen is
absolutely spellbinding with her knowledge of who
uses the library, and it's quite a story. It's an
institution that reaches lots of people. It's a
treasured resource for sure.

The thing that impresses me most about our
library is how many people help out or see them
selves as supporters. To raise a million bucks in
this town illustrates the reality that our
library is a place the community uses and comes
together and values. Colleen is at the center of
that.

--- allnutt <allnutt at verizon.net> wrote:

> I'm sure those number exists somewhere but
> because we work on a county 
> cooperative system it would only indicate how
> the whole county is doing not 
> just Forest Grove.
> We can go into any library in the county and
> get a card.  The card allows us 
> to use any library in the county system, even
> though each library is 
> independently operated. Or at least each city
> operates its own libraries if 
> they have more than one.  Even though I live in
> FG I can go to say, 
> Hillsboro and check out any book in their
> library and people who got their 
> card in Hillsboro can come to FG as well.  If
> you only knew how many FG 
> cards are issued it might not indicate how much
> the FG library is used 
> because others can come and check out books
> too.
> The fun part is, that when I use the other
> libraries I have to go by their 
> city rules.  If I check out a book there and
> return it late, since they have 
> late fees I have to pay it. I believe that only
> 2 of the 8 or so libraries 
> in the system do not charge fines.  And for
> those that do charge fines, they 
> will collect each others fines so the patrons
> records will be cleared but 
> the library that collects the fines keeps the
> money and presumably it all 
> comes out in the wash for being an equal
> exchange of fines.
> In general though, the number of county issued
> cards is growing.  And 
> another general rule is that when you change
> your library structure, i.e., 
> build a new building or remodel an old one,
> there is a spike in activity at 
> the library.  Right now we are remodeling the
> old half of our library so in 
> a few months when it is done we would expect a
> spike in cards and 
> circulation.  During the messy and somewhat
> inconvenient remodeling phase it 
> wouldn't surprise me if people come less to
> avoid the hassle and noise.
> 
> They do keep statistics on 'dead cards', i.e.
> those that have not been used 
> in 3 years.  But if you were the owner of such
> a card that does not mean you 
> have to get a new card.  For active cards I
> don't know if they keep track of 
> how active they are (# of visits, # items
> checked each time, titles of items 
> checked, etc) but I'm sure the feds would love
> it if a local government 
> would bear the cost of tracking such patron use
> and then let the feds look 
> at it secretly when ever they wanted to. (grin)
> 
> Which reminds me, I thought I heard a story of
> some library dumping their 
> data on patrons so the feds wouldn't take
> advantage of them in that way but 
> I don't recall where it was or how the issue
> came up. Was it a pre-emptive 
> dump based on principle or had the feds asked
> for stuff that went beyond the 
> stated principles of basic library ethics, I
> don't know.  It just brought 
> home to me that the issue of data collection
> and use of it is an issue that 
> can come up in many ways.
> 
> Does that answer your question or just muddy
> the waters a bit?
> 
> Katie
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: <JBlair2154 at aol.com>
> To: <grovenet at rdrop.com>
> Sent: Thursday, June 08, 2006 10:19 PM
> Subject: [Grovenet] Re: library fines?
> 
> 
> >
> > In a message dated 6/8/2006 9:47:03 PM
> Central Daylight Time,
> > grovenet-request at rdrop.com writes:
> >
> > just  implementing late fines is not one of
> those easy decisions once
> > you know a  little bit more.
> >
> >
> > Whew, I guess not!  Thanks for educating me
> on the  subject, Katie. It 
> > would
> > seem that knowing a community and its library
> patrons  very well is a key 
> > to
> > making the best decision, and from that
> standpoint, I do  like Eric's
> > suggestion of following the recommendation of
> your long-time library 
> > director, Colleen
> > Winter.
> > I'm curious. Do you happen to have any
> numbers to indicate how  many 
> > people
> > have current library cards and of those, how
> many use the library on  a 
> > regular
> > basis? Or how rapidly those numbers are
> increasing?
> >
> > Joy
> >
> >
> >
> >
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> 
> 
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