Tales from the Public Library

I am a patron of local libraries. Have been since I was little. Every new town I live in, I get a library card. I don’t consider myself truly living in a place until I’ve enrolled and gotten a library card. Even if I will only go sporadically, or not at all in some cases, I still get a card, and I get cards for my kids.

I am going to miss my library back in Chesapeake. I was a LOYAL patron. I was so loyal, I knew all the librarians. They knew me on a first-name basis. They knew my kids. They knew when a book came in on hold, and it was for me; they knew me. They got me.

Since we moved to Cherry Hill, New Jersey, I have to start over from the beginning at the local public library.

Not all libraries are created equal

Libraries here are a little different than what I was used to. I guess living in larger cities most of your life will do that for you. In turn, I am accustomed to the multi-branch model for one city library system. It’s good and bad.

Good because there is a LARGER selection of books, which can be held in multiple locations, not just one. Bad because if the book you want isn’t at the branch closest to you, you have to wait to have it delivered to your local branch. But that is its own benefit because then you don’t have to hunt the stacks, you just click, point, and order your book list online and pick it up all neatly placed under your name at the holds section.

I’m a multi-book-at-a-time reader, so that really makes my library trips more streamlined. I’ve got kids. I don’t have time to just stroll the stacks for hours. I still try to browse and look around, but only if I have loads of time to kill, which is rare.

There can’t be only one

In Cherry Hill, they have a single branch for the entire city. The library is huge. I will give it props because it has a coffee bar inside. But still, because of this single branch, if the book I want is physically on the shelf, I am expected to go get it myself. I know, first-world problems.

Therefore, I miss the multi-branch hold system. Just for that one convenience alone. At this library, I can only put a book on hold if someone else has it, or if it hasn’t been shelved yet because it’s on order. I guess that’s something.

My current beef, the one thing that got me so salty, is the DVD section. You have to pay to “borrow” a movie. Is this the library or Blockbuster Video?

North and South

Let’s do a comparison of Cherry Hill vs. Chesapeake regarding DVD borrowing at the public library:

Here in Cherry Hill, they have many movies and many current movies. BUT I have to pay $2 for each “entertainment” DVD rental, and I get it for 5 days, with one 5-day renewal possible, if no one else has placed a hold on the DVD. So, potentially a total of 10 days to view the movie, and I have to make sure to activate the renewal or rack up return fees.

Chesapeake, when I last checked, was expanding its current collection so that it too had at least one copy of a current popular film on DVD. In Chesapeake, I could borrow DVDs like a book, no money needed, for the full two-week borrowing period and renew them for one week at a time, up to two times for a total four-week period, provided there were no holds on the film.

Chesapeake did not have an “entertainment” section; it was just a DVD, whether comedy, drama, or documentary.

Cherry Hill had different borrowing policies depending on the kind of film it was. Documentaries fall under the same rules as books, three week borrowing time.

But if it’s mildly entertaining, considered drama, thriller, or comedy, you have to pay the $2 per film rate. For children’s/youth DVDs, you can rent them for $1 for 7 days (big whoop, two more days) and a one-week renewal.

So am I peeved? Yes! Majorly.

Old habits Die Hard

Before we moved, I had used the Chesapeake library system as a budget-savvy way to augment our family entertainment time without having to worry about rental fees or having to have the movie back the next day before 9pm a la Redbox (wasting gas if I wasn’t already going to be driving around somewhere).

I also didn’t have to wait eighteen years for a movie to appear for rent on Netflix or wait for it to arrive in my mailbox. Nor did I need to gamble which movie from my queue I will feel like watching two to three days from now.

So yes, I am highly annoyed to discover that the library that I had seen as my shining bastion of budget-friendly movie watching options has now become another inconvenience, and made it so I have to seek other ways to see films. It might not seem like a lot, but $2 adds up after a while, after several films in fact. BIG disappointment.

Nickel and diming

What possible benefit could come from charging patrons money for the DVD’s they want to see? There’s the potential revenue for the library, the likelihood that fewer people will be clamoring to borrow the limited resource, and therefore reduce waiting times for those willing to pay.

Having to pay means that they will keep those DVD’s under close observation, keep them under strict rules, and therefore be able to scrutinize their condition upon rental more closely: quality control.

The chances of getting a rental DVD that is all scratched and unplayable are reduced, and therefore, you have saved the library money from potentially having to replace that DVD.

But I still think it is unfair that I have to be penalized for entertainment. It feels judgmental and snobby.