Some libraries that offer Bestseller Express
The idea behind these programs is that if you pay a fee you can avoid the long hold list for popular books.
Hennepin County, Minnesota – Rent a bestseller for $4.00 for 10 days.
Des Moines – $1 per week
Omaha, Nebraska – $1 per week
Strathcona County Library, Alberta, Canada – Free with slightly different checkout rules. (You will have to scroll down a couple paragraphs to see the Bestseller Express details.)
If you library has/had one of these programs you should comment on what you observed.
near failure here
At my library, (of which I am the director) we have a “lending” program as a fundraiser. This is sponsored by our Foundation, and it works wonders with DVDs. People pay $2.00 to get a new release DVD, it goes out for one week, and no holds are allowed. These go out like wildfire and no one complains.
Our book rental system, though, is pretty much a failure and is disliked by staff and patrons alike. We have multiple copies of The Help just sitting there waiting for someone to rent them for $1.00 for one week. Patrons object to having to pay for a book at the library. Even though we plug it as “not waiting for the line” and as a fundraiser, we maybe have made $100 in the last few months.
I will be recommending that we end the book lending program the next time the Foundation meets, but I don’t know if they’re going to go for it.
I can’t imagine what would
I can’t imagine what would happen at our library if a system like this were adopted. I, for one, would not want to pay to rent a book, even if that meant jumping the queue. Case in point: I just requested the newest Janet Evanovich novel and my place in line is 119. From experience, I know that it won’t be too long of a wait and I’m willing to wait. While I really want to read the book, I don’t need to read it right this very second.
I think perhaps a “hybrid” system would work. You could put in a request for free and, if you want to pay, you could. I don’t like the idea of not being able to check out a book without paying, like the person above me commented. The whole point of a library is that it’s free. I ALREADY pay for the books because I pay my taxes. To have to pay a fee on top of that goes against the idea behind libraries.
Hybrid system
It looks like the libraries mentioned above all have the hybrid model already.
Hennepin county: Rent a bestseller for $4.00 for 10 days. Bestseller Express titles also are available in the general collection for free checkout.
Omaha: Multiple copies of every book in the new Bestseller Express program are also available in the Library’s general collection for free checkout, and will continue to be available through our very popular hold system.
Strathcona County Library, Alberta, Canada: Bestseller Express books are free.
Common practice?
Don’t a lot of libraries have this system, only at no charge? Here we have “Best Bet” books that go out for one week and have to be returned to the branch that you borrowed it from. There are still copies of the book in the regular circulation system that you can place holds on, but if you walk into a library and a Best Bet copy is there you can get it right away.
We have a free version of this
Our “Hot Picks” section has 30-40 titles that are not holdable and have only one week checkout (no renewals allowed) plus a higher fine rate for late returns
I would never think of charging money for this system. It seems completely illogical to me…although if we did end up requesting payment I like the idea of it being as a fundraiser for the friends group, as someone stated above.
Very popular here.
We have the bestseller express, and it’s very very popular. Of course, part of that is due to the fact that the wait for popular new books in the regular circulation can get very high. Currently our wait list for “The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest” is over 1500. Even higher wait lists have occurred.
Very Popular As Well
Very popular here as well. Most people really love it, and use is very high. The few that do not like it just don’t use it. It takes nothing out of the regular collections, and in fact adds more copies into the general collections, as generates collection revenue. It sustains itself, and anything over that goes into the collections budget. And so far, it is doing very well! 500 books are bringing in about $1500 per month, so we will likely ramp it up soon!
And this has been around for years. Last check there were close to a hundred libraries doing this around the country.
We were anxious like everyone, but the public has been enthusiastic!
Donations
Libraries often have a hard time with donations because people donate books that do not meet the needs of the library. In a previous post to this story someone mentioned that there is a hold list of 1500 people waiting for the book “The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest”.
For the books that you know are crazy popular why not advertise that you are looking for those as donations? If you had a list of ten or twenty popular books that were in demand you could keep the list on your website and post it in the library and seek donations of these books. Then members of the community could help out the library and the people on the waiting list get the book a little quicker.