Comments on: The Simple Dollar Weekly Roundup: Library Edition

By: Claudia

Claudia — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 23:43:25 +0000

#7 Deb- your town board is made up of idiots! Close the library, what a stupid, stupid idea. Gee, have it open less hours or ask for volunteers! I’ve only once lived in a town without a library, but there was one 15 miles away. I don’t think I could survive without my books. You need to start a petition to stop them. They need to think of the children growing up without a library.

By: jeff

jeff — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 15:47:08 +0000

Someone at my local library wrote a greasemonkey script so that whenever you search Amazon.com it automatically does a search of the local library system as well as WorldCat and AccessPA for that book and then provides links. They also made an iGoogle gadget and a toolbar search for Firefox. Then of course they will ship items from one branch to the branch 2 blocks from my house on request as well.

By: reulte

reulte — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 14:29:47 +0000

littlepitcher — I always ask the mechanic to hand tightened them and I’m usually right there watching them to make sure they do so.

I love my local libraries — sadly, budget crunches have hit them as well and one is only open 2 days a week while the other is open 4 days. Libraries usually buy multiples for popular books, but one way to keep yourself from being way back on the list is to see if there is a pre-purchase wait list or to get on the list soon after the book is published.

By: littlepitcher

littlepitcher — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 13:20:08 +0000

Our small-town library has a couple of known identity thieves running it, and their family is slowly taking over the town government. After many years of mid-city libraries, I am quietly bereft. Other cities do have great online resources, especially for genealogy. Even if you are not into that sort of research, the multitudes of historical material available in those departments can keep curiosity well fed.
I quit buying anything except tools at Sears, years ago. The service is poor, clothing overpriced, and the shoes fall apart fast. With the breakage of a ratchet and stripping out of two sockets, I’m not even certain about their tools. (Top gripe: mechanics who use air tools to tighten lugs that ordinary citizens have to remove with hand tools.)

By: LoriBeth

LoriBeth — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 01:53:04 +0000

I love my library, but I’ve also discovered a small used bookstore close by that will let you trade in your old books for credit. My daughter came out with a whole basket full of books, and already has a basket ready to go back for trade. Really fun.

By: guinness416

guinness416 — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 01:24:54 +0000

Toronto’s library system is outstanding – the ability to read magazines online, great booking mechanism, etc etc – but for popular books, no matter how many copies they get, I’m often more like number 250 in line than 4! It’s generally still worth waiting though.

By: Kathy

Kathy — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 00:22:00 +0000

Sadly, it appears that my local libraries do not have listings on worldcat page :(

By: cv

cv — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 22:42:56 +0000

Thanks for the worldcat link, Greg! Since I live near one library and work near one in a different system, that will come in really handy.

By: Seth Mason

Seth Mason — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 19:39:21 +0000

I’m with Greg on this one. Worldcat is great. There’s a helpful bookmarklet too called xISBN Bookmarket that makes it even easier to use.

I wrote up a little blurb about it earlier this year:
http://sethmason.com/2010/01/30/visit-your-local-library-via-amazoncom.html

By: Gavin

Gavin — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 19:24:05 +0000

My wife checks out books from the public library all the time. This saves a lot of money and most books can be found. In San Diego, you can go to their website and reserve books from any library and they deliver it to your local library for free! http://www.sandiego.gov/public-library

By: Margaret

Margaret — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 18:29:47 +0000

I admit it; I love buying books. According to my records, I spent about $1500 on them last year. $500 of that was paid for with free Amazon gift cards, gotten from Swagbucks, MyPoints, my PerkStreet debit card, or my Amazon.com visa. Many of the rest came from PaperbackSwap, where I buy credits for $2.50 each. I always buy used and can make out like a bandit at used booksales. so I do pretty well for myself. It’s one of the few recreational things I spend on ; It’s worth every penny to me.

My commuter train lets off a few blocks from an excellent library, and I get a lot of my books there was well. That’s probably another $100/year in library fines. Well worth it, IMHO. Reading is my main hobby.

By: Brad

Brad — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 17:10:02 +0000

I’ve actually been doing the same thing with my library and Paperback Swap for a few months now.

Another nice thing is the southern Minnesota libraries are linked. Thus, I can get a book from another southern MN library sent to my library, just by a click of a button on the web.

I have quite a few Paperback Swap credits left. I too am only using them for books I know I’ll read over and over and over again for many years to come.

For books I can’t get through PBS or don’t want to wait, I hold onto Barnes&Noble gift certificates for a long time (they don’t expire). I save the certificates for only those things I really, really, really want.

I figure it’s only a matter of time before Paperback Swap gets them in. If there’s a book that everyone is reading right now, I’m avoiding reading it then anyhow, so waiting for PBS isn’t a big deal for me.

By: margaret

margaret — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 16:26:51 +0000

I live near a small town, so our library isn’t huge BUT we belong to in interlibrary loan system so I can request books on the website and it will get sent to my home library. I think pretty much all the libraries in the northern half of my province are in our system, excluding the city.

I LOVE SEARS. I don’t know how they operate in the states, but in Canada, they have catalogs, a website, and a pick up location in just about every small town, so you can get a lot of stuff brought to your town that you would otherwise have to travel an hour or more to purchase. And I have had nothing but fabulous service from Sears.

By: deb

deb — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 16:14:01 +0000

I live in a sad place. Our city has decided to close the library as they think it’s too expensive to keep it running with the lower property tax revenue coming in. I’m devastated. I do the same thing – see a book online, reserve it at the library site and pick it up a few weeks later. Right now I have 4 library books at home. I don’t really know what I’ll do next year when it closes, but I know I need to start a savings account for it.

I have to add that our city leaders are idiots as there are many other places to cut $$ instead of closing the library. We’re already hearing that people don’t want to buy houses here, knowing there won’t be a library in the near future. So, property values will fall even more.

By: Dottie

Dottie — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 15:50:00 +0000

When we lived in Orange County (Orlando) I used the library much more than I do now and I truly miss it! I could put a newer release ( or older) on hold via their website and then they would mail it to me. After I read it I would just put it back in the mailer it was shipped in and return it. Postage was already paid. It was the easiest thing around.. and free. Usually took anywhere from a week to three to get depending on the book. However, when we moved to a rural area in North Florida last year I had to find alternatives such as paperback swap or purchase new. The library in this area is not well stocked and does not provide a website. I don’t read as much these days, the cows, chickens and garden take up most of my time now.

By: Jon

Jon — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 15:23:32 +0000

I do the same thing with our local library. Fortunately, I live in a fairly low population density area, and even new books generally have no more than a dozen holds in the queue. If I absolutely must read something the day it comes out, I go by Hastings on the release day and get it for half price. There are very few authors I feel that strongly about, however.

By: Rianne

Rianne — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 15:17:43 +0000

Ah hah! And now I understand why you use libraries for new releases! Your hold lists are so short.
I recently went to reserve a book that came out 6 months ago but was quite popular and the latest in a long series. I was hold #375 or so. Remember this is also 6 months after the book came out. 3 weeks later I was #350. I bought the book.

I love my public library, 99 branches and 11 million items available. But the demand for new books is too high, if it’s something I’ve been anticipating for a while I would much rather buy it than add another 6 or 8 months of waiting before I get to read it.

By: Lauren

Lauren — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 15:16:49 +0000

This is also how I preview children’s books I hear about online or see in magazines. If my kiddos love the library copy, then I know it’s worth purchasing for them.

By: Patty

Patty — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 15:14:18 +0000

Why don’t you check the library before paperbackswap. That way you can read it and see if its worth having a copy before spending money (or credits) on something not worthwhile?

By: Greg

Greg — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 14:20:58 +0000

Instead of going to the Library website directly, you can search the book in WorldCat (http://www.worldcat.org/), enter your location (if it is not automatically detected), and you will get a list of all (participating) libraries in your geographical area that have a copy of this book. Of course this only makes sense if you live in an area with a high library density.
The Worldcat catalog contains 1.5 billion items from more than 10.000 libraries all over the world.