Money down the drain

Recently we suggested an easy way to do your bit towards saving the planet. Today we extend our advice to encompass ways of saving money.

We recently paid in all the cash we'd taken off you in the last month or so. Over half of it - and it was a good chunk of cash - was fines for late return of books. Fines are like tooth - decay easy to avoid if you follow a few simple rules. Here's how (to avoid fines, I mean - for tooth decay, make friends with a dentist and buy a good toothbrush)

1. Bring your books back on time. (I like this option - simple, but effective).

2. Renew your books by phone or email on or before the day they are due and write the new date on the handy date stamp label in the front of the book to remind you.

3. Bring the books to the postgrad centre when we're closed and post them in the big blue book drop box outside the door.

4. Make sure we have your current full and correct postal address and email address so we can remind you when your books are overdue.

5. Let us know when you borrow books that actually you will be out of the country in the week the books are due.

6. Let us know if you are sick/have been kidnapped by aliens and will not be able to get your books back on the due date.

The one thing not to do is to ignore any letters or emails we send out as this tends to make us rather cross and less inclined to be nice to you when we do finally see you and your books. The thing is, we don't really want you to waste you money on fines. We just want our books in circulation for everyone to share.

(c) creative commons attributed

The book drop box is shut!

From time to time people stagger into the library, clutching books which they drop on the counter, saying "I tried to put these in the book drop box, but it's locked."

And they're right - it is locked. It gets unlocked just before we leave and we lock it again when we come in. Why do we do that?

Useful as the box is books tend to come out looking bashed and tattered. We like our books to look shiny and new. To limit the damage we'd rather they came upstairs to us.

We charge fines. Some of you hope that if you drop the books in the box we wont notice they are overdue. Librarians notice everything - and we keep notes. If you come on up and pay your debts immediately you get to leave with a clear conscience (and an empty wallet - but that's not our problem!)

From time to time you change your phone number or your email address and forget to tell us. Then you ask us for something and when we try to contact you we can't get hold of you. So if you come in we can hand over that paper you requested.

We like to see you! We're friendly folk in the library and we like to see people. Sometimes we might want to say something that didn't seem worth a phone call. We might want to point out a new book on the shelves or ask if you've seen a new website. We just like to say hello.

Apparently exercise is good for you. So go on - walk up the stairs! The book drop box is locked!

(c) creative commons attributed, image 1, image 2

Another fine mess

The evil day has come at last - I am introducing fines on overdue items. Why? Because there are a small number of people who seem to think that they can keep books for as long as they want. The intention is that fines are deterrent for those people rather than a punishment for people with genuine difficulties in returning items or a method of income generation. At the risk of being controversial fines are like speed cameras - stick to the rules and you'll never have to pay a penny.

I've recently read a comment about public libraries that says people should be able to borrow as many items as they like for as long as they like. I can see the point - it's annoying when I borrow something that has clearly come from the stacks at Harlow and not been out since 1987 to have to keep renewing it every 3 weeks. On the other hand when I worked in public libraries the nurseries and schools had books on semi-permanent loan and when they came back they were usually in such a state that they had to be thrown away. At least they had been read and used, and arguably the county council was just in the business of supplying free books to schools. A good thing, surely.

However, what we have here is a very small collection and a very small budget. If someone took out our entire collection on crisis management, COPD, reflective practice or Parkinson's and kept it for six months I'd then have to borrow book form other libraries (which does actually costs us) for other people.

The point of the library is that it is a shared resource. Sometimes people will say "oh - but no one else in my department will need these, " or even "oh - I'll stick these in the department and people can share them". Your department, discipline, profession may well not be the only people who will want to read that book. So while you gaily hog it because no other physio/F2 doctor/radiologist will want it various other managers/student nurses/consultants are seething because they see nothing on our shelves on that subject. Anything you borrow and leave in the department that is lost, damage, stolen or strays is your responsibility - you are the person who gets the bill for replacing the item. If your department needs bench books then the department should buy them - the library does not supply free bench books to departments.

If you really need a book for months on end then go and buy a copy of your own that you can dog ear, scribble on, highlight, underline, leave about the department, lend to friends, feed to your dog or abandon on a bus. Library staff are always happy to supply details of books, prices and places to buy them.

To make life a little easier we hope to soon have a big blue box for returning items that will be available for putting books in when the library - and the Postgrad centre - are closed. We do always send reminders on overdue items. If you move then please let us know so that we can make sure you receive your overdue notice. You can always phone or email to renew books. We prefer that you phone as then we can let you know immediately if for any reason it’s not possible to renew a book (normally because someone else is waiting to borrow it.)
Bottom line? Fines will be due on anything that is taken out from the 2nd of July 2007 onwards and returned late. Fines will be 10 per book per day (excluding weekends and Bank Holidays). ALL members of staff with overdue books will have to pay fines. You have been warned!!!