Libraries ARE NOT FREE! STOP LYING!

“You'll be amazed to know that so many things you're paying for are now available at no charge at your local branch.”

This is absolutely and unequivocally FALSE. Libraries are not free. Library services are not free. Library materials are not free. (Unless, of course you pay no taxes at all, ever, anywhere.) As I’ve stated before, the cheapest a library gets is $13 +/- per capita. Would we call other things free that cost $13 per person? Are baseball games free if you get an outfield bleacher seat? Is a movie ticket free? NO. Is the library a good deal? Yes, to those that use it, the library is a great deal. In fact, the more you use it, the better a deal it becomes. However, it is NOT free.

Everyone in library land should do themselves a favor and stop spreading this lie. Instead, we should tell the truth. The library is not free; it’s something you’ve already paid for. An apt analogy (in my mind) is that the library is like a Groupon deal that get’s you $100 of food for about $13. Once you’ve paid for that, your food isn’t free, it’s just really cheap. (The big flaw in this analogy, if course, is that you would CHOOSE to buy the groupon, you have no real choice about the library- but that’s a different story altogether.)

If you think it’s free, you simply think you’re passing up a free service- like not taking that sample pizza bagel at SAMS. However, if you don’t use the library, you’re paying for something you’re not using- like buying the box of pizza bagels and leaving them on the bottom of the cart instead of taking them home. From a library marketing standpoint, I don’t see WHY you would ever tell someone it’s free. Are you more likely to use something that’s free, or something that you’ve already paid for so you might as well get your money’s worth? I definitely don’t know why Linda McMaken at Investopedia would make this ignorant mistake.

Fun with Figures

My last idea got me thinking. The numbers just seems amazing to me, so I thought I would take them out to some logical conclusions. First, I was wrong about Kern County. It’s San Antonio that spends the least per capita at $13.96. Now, let’s keep looking at those numbers.

Approximately 70% (really 68%, but I’m giving the benefit to a higher number) of the population has a library card. Only 35% of cardholders used the library in between one and five times in the last year (so, at most, less than once every 2 months). 15% use the library at least almost every 2 weeks. With the in between visitors, data shows that 76% of cardholders used the library in the last year. (That means that 26% of cardholders used the library more than 5 times a year and less than 25).

I’m going to quit picking on San Francisco and use San Antonio as my example base. Let’s use their population of 1,513,800 as listed in the lit. So, we can fairly assume that approx 1,059,660 people in San Antonio have library cards. We can also fairly assume that only 805,342 have used these cards in the last year- and 254,318 haven’t. So, these numbers show 708,458 people in San Antonio haven’t used the library AT ALL in the last year. This is 47% of the population!

Now, let’s look at the budget and break it down like CB4-

$13.96 per capita expenditure gives San Antonio Public Library a budget of a little over $21mm annually. That gives the library a budget of almost $20/library cardholder. This means the budget is $26/library USER. I could get into shades here and only count a percentage of the minimal users, but I won’t. (in San Fran that equals out to approx $117/USER). So, the 41% of cardholders that account for the library’s real circ numbers (especially the top 15 percent cardholders) are getting a STEAL. BTW, 15 percent of cardholders equals approx 20% of USERS that drive your real circ and stats. So, in San Antonio, that’s 158,949 people that are “heavy users”. That’s 10.5% of the total population uses the library on (at least) a bi-weekly basis. These people- even assuming that they only check out 1 item each every 25 times a year- account for 3,973,725 circs/year. That’s 62% of the library’s total circulation (6,374,109 in the year of these numbers)! Also, from the same source, that means they account for 93% of library visits (4,267,488 total)!!!! This is from a minority of cardholders/users and 11% of the population!

Please someone correct my math here- because this CAN’T BE RIGHT! If they account for at least 62% of circ, can we assume that 62% of the budget is devoted toward them? I think for this thought exercise we can. So, that’s approx $13,020,000 per year. Let’s break this into cost per heavy user- we get $81.91 each. That leaves 38% of the budget to cover the remaining user pop- costing about $9.90 for each one of them. This is fuzzy, I know, but I just think it’s an interesting way to look at it.

No matter how you look at it, about 10% of the population is actually using the library. Even at (one of) the lowest spending per capita library systems in the country, these people are getting a service that should cost them at least almost $82 each for a cost of about $14 each. Does anyone else see a problem with this? Can anyone explain to me why this is fair or right?

Member, or MemberPlus?

Libraries everywhere are in (or under threat of) a budget crisis. State budget crises have rolled downhill and the local governments are being forced to trim the fat. Easy targets of such belt tightening are public libraries. For better or worse, libraries are viewed as subsidized entertainment for those unable, or unwilling, to shill out the cash for their book and audio/visual pleasures. After all, we’ve got schools to educate and spread literacy…

The top library spending per capita according to THIS (a bit dated) is in San Francisco at $68.68. The most frugal is Kern County Library at $14.43 per citizen. For the sake of argument, let us assume that these numbers are still close to accurate AND that cost of living isn’t an issue and San Francisco Library patrons get a little less than 5 times the value out of their library that those living in Bakersfield get. I will, for illustration, concede these points. The other listed libraries spread across to cover the gap pretty well. However, we must consider that the cost per LIBRARY USER is HIGHER than cost per citizen given the numbers HERE. Plus, look at the small 15% minority of users actually drive library circulation with heavy use. They sure are getting their money’s worth.

--- Just for math fun, the annual per capita cost of the library is $68.68, but if only 70% of the total population of SanFran is a library card holder (563,665, est.). The per-USER cost is actually over $98/year. ---

So, if you’re still reading beyond that riveting opening, I’m getting to my point now. What if we found a way to tap into the finances of that 15% of library card holders that are “SUPER USERS”? Using the San Francisco example with the hypothetical 70% library card holders, and the cited 15% of “super users”, that would be an estimated “super user” population of 84,550 people. These are already library members, but what if we offered them a different level of service? What if we offered to make them MemberPLUS members?

If we offered these people a special membership at an extra cost of $5/month, that would raise another $5 million dollars annually from those people that REALLY like the library. What, however, would be the perks? What would make them want to pay extra for something they are already using? What if MemberPlus members were allowed extended checkout times? What DVD checkout limit was doubled with your MemberPlus membership? What if there was streaming content available only to MemberPlus cardholders? MemberPlus patrons could be notified in advance of new books and bestsellers- allowing them first dibs on requests. MemberPlus patrons could get library e-mail addresses and cloud storage space. MemberPlus patrons could get discounts at local area businesses that support the library.

What’s the downside? These are the people that already drive our circ and usage. Our use would go up, the program would pay for itself AND fund library improvements, special programs, fill budget gaps, employ more staff, etc. Even at half the number of people, we’re talking a good chunk of change. We aren’t creating an elite class of patron, because they’re already an elite class of user. EVERY business caters to it’s top customers.

I’m interested to see if anyone moves to this- or already does it.