Library book replacement fees

[blueshirt2003]

A library that I received a book from (inter library so not my local city) wants $30 for a book that is $15 from the publisher.

I know there are fees for bar coding them but not $15.

The book was paperback so it had no special library binding.

I've emailed them and the lady said I couldn't mail back a book plus a fee. They'd only take $30.

What would you do?

The book is actually $8 on Amazon. And I'd send a processing fee as well if I did this.

[vanillacourage]

You lose a book that doesn't belong to you, you pay their fee.

[blueshirt2003]

I didn't lose a book. It was damaged with some water. The book is still readable and presentable. My library was shocked they said it is a loss. I forgot to add that to the original post.

[Deleted]

Sept 7, 2012 9:09:52 GMT -5 vanillacourage said:

You lose a book that doesn't belong to you, you pay their fee.

Yup. Part of the risk of using the library.

Plus, it is the library. The money is going towards a good cause.

[dexteroni]

Part of that fee is a fine. Pay it. Libraries are broke enough.

ETA: I will say that it was ok to ask about an alternative arrangement IMO. But since they said no, you gotta pay up.

And now I'm curious - what were you thinking of doing? Disregarding their wishes and sending your own book anyway?

[Brie]

Eh, it's the library. I'd consider it a charitable donation and move on.

[Deleted]

Pay the fee. If you use the library at all, you have saved at least the $30, and you really do owe them for the damage.

[hannamaren]

Sept 7, 2012 9:16:46 GMT -5 Brie said:

Eh, it's the library. I'd consider it a charitable donation and move on.

This is how I feel about late fees.

[takeonyou]

Send them the money. They probably use the fee money to but books that are popular, not necessarily the one you ruined.

[blueshirt2003]

Sept 7, 2012 9:12:23 GMT -5 dexteroni said:

Part of that fee is a fine. Pay it. Libraries are broke enough.

ETA: I will say that it was ok to ask about an alternative arrangement IMO. But since they said no, you gotta pay up.

And now I'm curious - what were you thinking of doing? Disregarding their wishes and sending your own book anyway?

I had emailed them and asked if I could buy from the publisher and pay the fee. And that I'd like the damaged book back. No, I'm not going to do as I want.

[blueshirt2003]

I'll mail them the $30. Y'all are right. It is just a shock that it's a 200% mark up. My library was wide eyed at the amount and that it was considered damaged completely by them.

[Deleted]

You damaged the book, pay for it. While you may feel $30 is excessive, it may not be. The library may choose to buy a different book now that they are pulling the one you damaged. Also, every library is less lenient on ILL damaged books.

To be quite frank, libraries are struggling and depend on late/damage fees to continue operating. Pay the fee - and keep library books away from water.

[Deleted]

Sept 7, 2012 9:32:33 GMT -5 blueshirt2003 said:

I'll mail them the $30. Y'all are right. It is just a shock that it's a 200% mark up. My library was wide eyed at the amount and that it was considered damaged completely by them.

Meh. Maybe. Or they acted that way to appease you knowing they had no control or ability to change it for you. The patron is always right blah blah blah.

[Deleted]

Sept 7, 2012 9:10:57 GMT -5 blueshirt2003 said:

I didn't lose a book. It was damaged with some water. The book is still readable and presentable. My library was shocked they said it is a loss. I forgot to add that to the original post.

When I had this happen, they said it was a mold issue and a danger to adjoining books. I ended up buying the book from them because they were going to throw it out.

[Deleted]

Also, there's something of a moral hazard involved here. If damaging/not returning a library book could be remedied by simply paying the discounted Amazon price for the book, there would be much less incentive to return a book that you like and think was worth the Amazon price. In that case, the library would likely have to buy replacement books all the time and that would be costly and time-consuming (and would hurt patrons who want to take the books out without having to wait for the replacement to be purchased and made ready for circulation). Hence, it makes sense for their to be a punitive component to replacement cost, so there is more of an incentive to return books/treat them well.

[timorousbeastie]

Sept 7, 2012 9:36:56 GMT -5 @mrschicken said:

When I had this happen, they said it was a mold issue and a danger to adjoining books. I ended up buying the book from them because they were going to throw it out.

This. When I worked at a library, we had to damage out any book with any amount of water damage due to the possibility of mold.

And as far as the cost goes, our library had the policy of charging whatever the cost was to buy the item initially. You may be able to buy it on Amazon for $8 now, but they may have paid $30 when they first bought it. Back in the day when we had VHS tapes for rentals, we had to pay a crazy amount to buy the movie in the first few months of it being available to the public. After it had been released for a while, the movie companies would drop their price drastically. People were always pissed (and understandably so) that they owed a $100+ replacement fee on a movie they could buy for $20 by that point. I'm not saying this is the best policy, but I wouldn't be surprised if this is why you are being charged more than what you could buy the book for now.

[MadamePresident]

Pay it. Really $30 isn't that much. Library late fees are the only late fees I don't mind paying. I get so much more value than the few dollars I end up paying.

Which reminds me, I think I need to go renew some books.

[gnomesweetgnome]

It's a little more complicated than just ordering it from Amazon and slapping a barcode on there.

The fees are there to make sure you return their materials in the same state you received them in. They have to order the book, wait for it to come in, process it, etc. This takes time (and time = $) plus they have to pay salaries for the employees who are doing all this work.

If you purchase the book to give them (and it has to be the EXACT same copy, not just 'close enough'), you still have to pay the late fees the book accrued before you hit the maximum fee amount, plus a processing fee for the new book that will have to be barcoded, stamped, etc.

[mrsbro]

Sept 7, 2012 9:45:52 GMT -5 timorousbeastie said:

Sept 7, 2012 9:36:56 GMT -5 @mrschicken said:

When I had this happen, they said it was a mold issue and a danger to adjoining books. I ended up buying the book from them because they were going to throw it out.

This. When I worked at a library, we had to damage out any book with any amount of water damage due to the possibility of mold.

And as far as the cost goes, our library had the policy of charging whatever the cost was to buy the item initially. You may be able to buy it on Amazon for $8 now, but they may have paid $30 when they first bought it. Back in the day when we had VHS tapes for rentals, we had to pay a crazy amount to buy the movie in the first few months of it being available to the public. After it had been released for a while, the movie companies would drop their price drastically. People were always pissed (and understandably so) that they owed a $100+ replacement fee on a movie they could buy for $20 by that point. I'm not saying this is the best policy, but I wouldn't be surprised if this is why you are being charged more than what you could buy the book for now.

Still work in the library and this is the reason we charge the fee we paid for the material.

[blueshirt2003]

The mold problem never crossed my mind.

I'm paying it though. I'd never simply say eff you to a library.

[yourmom]

Consider it a donation to a service that is valuable to the community.

[ohgillian]

Sept 7, 2012 9:09:28 GMT -5 blueshirt2003 said:

I know there are fees for bar coding them but not $15.

You send the book back. They code this edition as taken out of circulation. They stick it on an "out of circulation" shelf. They order a new one. The new one arrives. They open the mail. They create and stick a bar code sticker on the new one. They enter it in the computer so that it's back in circulation. They send it out from main processing to the branch that it belongs to.

How can you not think it will cost at least $15 in staff time to do that? I'm not just talking about direct wages, but benefit costs are like 40% of a salary, or more. Yes, this will cost them $15 in staff time.

[StJess80]

As for the $15 in library time, it very well could. If this happened at my library, I wouldn't be the only one taking care of it, but for the sake of argument, let's say I was (because I make $15-16 an hr) The borrowing library has to contact the owning library. We'll say 5 min there. Then the library has to locate the book from one of their vendors. Depending on the age of the book, this could take longer. I'll go low and say 20 min. The book arrives. The invoice comes with. Book has to be unpacked, and then separated from the others. Invoice is pulled, payment is initiated. Let's go with 10 min. The book goes to the cataloger who checks the bib record on the old copy, and updates anything needed. (ex: size of book, etc) a slip is written up for it. The book goes back to aquisitions, who then locates the book, rebarcodes it and puts it w/ the other books on the cart. So let's say 20 min. Then, the book has to have the spine label put on it, needs to be stamped and have the alarm stripping put in it. That's another 10 min. Does this book have any additional supplements to it, such as CD ROMS, or anything like that? Once the book is shelf ready, it has to be wrapped and mailed back to the owning library. So, about 10 min. We have 5 min left from the 60 min to equal the $15 but the postage to mail the book back to the owning library will even it out.


And even all of that aside, replacement books are high for a reason. Because they don't want the books taken!