Daily Links: Crying Librarians Edition

Pledging to buy fewer books and visit my local library more often turned out to be one of the best frugal decisions I ever made. The fact that it was one of the first (my New Year’s resolution for 2007) means that I experienced success right away in changing my habits to decrease spending and increase savings (plus, it’s warm there–when I turned my thermostat down to 58 this past winter, the library was my go-to place to study without wearing three layers).

I love my local library; it makes me so happy to see the families, retired folks, students, and even homeless guys waiting outside the doors patiently waiting for the librarians to unlock the doors. . .

Love your new introductory page! Handsome guy in the picture, too.

Brother. Some sorta rental store for books…must have been written by one of my university juniors & seniors who misspell their own names.

Right on about the unpassivity of “passive” income. The only truly passive income I’ve ever noticed occurs when someone has SO much money invested in equities that she or he can afford to hire a manager to ride herd on it. The whole rental income scheme looks altogether to much like work to me. Not that this is a bad thing: it’s just that you have to choose the kind of work you prefer to spend 12 hours a day at.

And then, of course, you’ve got the non-traditional libraries too: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tool-lending_libraries

My library has a widget on their website that will let you enter information on your last month’s borrowing history and then give you a breakdown on how much money you’re saving vs what you’ve paid in taxes. I come out hundreds of dollars ahead every month, but I read a lot and borrow DVDs for the whole family.

I’m glad you pointed out the difference between passive income and busting your butt at a PT endeavor (or full time, in your case) to make a little money on the side. Many people assume us bloggers simply put out a few articles and the sit back and let the money roll in. Couldn’t be more wrong! This really does involve a truckload of effort, and I never appreciated until I started doing it myself.

And, our lovely neighborhood library even has a coffee bar! What could be a better use of an afternoon than to bike to the library for reading and a latte? Can you tell I just love to read?

The selections in the personal finance/business section were unlike what I would normally see in local bookstores. They have some older books, too. Some advice is just timeless, though!

To the “book rental” idea. There is an actual book rental alternative: buy used books on amazon.com or ebay.com and sell after reading them! This way you effectively rent the book for certain period of time (while you own/read it).

As an example, take any book on the current Amazon Bestsellers list, say Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (#8 in the list). Buy a ‘used-like new’ copy for $4.76 (plus S&H) and after you read it, sell it for 3.5 – 4 bucks (and pass your S&H cost onto the next reader). Voila! You rented this book for around 1 dollar!

BTW, this way I saved oodles of money on my college books!

I had a discussion with one of my good friends the other day about the difference between being wealthy and looking wealthy. She doesn’t feel like she is doing as well as her peers and she talked about other’s new office condos, new homes, new cars, horses, etc. (she owns a horse too, but only 1). Besides the fact that I thinks its unhealthy to compare yourself to others I reminded her that its almost impossible to do so. Yes, someone might be driving a fancy new luxury car (all of my friends do) but unless you sit down and look at their balance sheet you have no idea if they are doing well or are highly leveraged and in debt. I really, really, really want a nused car (and its one of my goals for 2008) and when people ask when I’m getting one (they ask because my car is the oldest in the parking garage and younger co-workers have way nicer cars that me) I say “when I can pay cash for it.”

JD-I love it how people complain how little money they have but have not stepped foot in a library since school. How much could they save in books, magazines, and video rentals? I know we haven’t used Blockbuster in almost 5 years. I also now only buy books and magazines we will use as reference. For example, I own my copy of the “Four Hour Workweek.” I own a copy of “Think and Grow Rich” on CD. I have a library of books I read (or listen to) over and over. Everything else is a drain on my resources.

As for being frugal making you look poor…so what? One of the reasons we spend more than we make is to impress our neighbors. Then one day we grow up and stop getting our self worth from the opinion of others! I get a kick out of listening to our neighbors and friends. They don’t see past the veneer of materialism. One day a neighbor talks about “finally being able to go to Burger King for dinner because they just got paid.” The next month they buy a new BMW and are “rich.” No promotion. They didn’t win the lottery. They obviously are having severe money problems if you look for the signs.

If we want to be debt free and grow our wealth, we need to stop worrying about what our neighbors think.

I’ve actually been trying to get to my local library for a couple of weeks now. But they’re closed on Sunday, only open until noon on Saturday and close at 5 on Wed, Thurs, and Fri. On Monday and Tuesday they close at 9pm. I tend to forget their hours and when I think about going they’re already closed.

I feel I have to set up a reminder to go to the library on the days they’re actually open when I’m off work.

Love this blog.

I am a librarian and as our comptetition has increased from the internet, we are finally waking up to the fact that we need to market our services. Shame on us that there are people in this country who don’t understand the concept of a library! Ranting aside, thank you all for your support!

I am a public librarian and so few people use the resources of their library. I can say I was guilty of this, too, before I started working at the public library. Mine has books galore – there will be very few titles you won’t find in the collection (its a major library system, though). We have DVDs that rent for $2 for 3 nights (this will vary from place to place) also audio books for rent. Digital audio books can be downloaded at home for a fee. Internet usage inside the building is free. Wireless access inside most buildings (with your own PC) is free. I could go on and on with the resources available – old LPs, rare books, local collections, etc.

But probably the most important resource is the staff, and don’t limit yourself to the degreed librarians. When I managed a branch in a small neighborhood our best readers advisory person was a circulation clerk. She didn’t have a college degree, but she’d read more fiction than any of the librarians and she was more popular with our fiction reading customers than any of the “degreed librarians”. But librarians are an excellent resource for information and are just knowledgable, well-rounded people. Some of us even have some personality and can hold a great conversation!

And next time you have a question about local resources, government, etc try your library – you might be surprised what is out there.

Oh my goodness. A rental store for books … it really does make you want to cry doesn’t it? I am going to start using my library more I’ve decided. It’s hard to stop buying books though, for me anyway. I feel like they are something worthwhile to spend money on and I like that. I love spending an afternoon in Borders picking out an armful of books to take home and find new places for them on my bookshelf. But I feel like it’s a habit that I have to break. There’s no point in hording them, I live by myself.

Good post J.D.!

Thank you for the Crying Librarians edition post!

Many people don’t realize that they may be able to get online services through their library too, ones they couldn’t afford on their own. In Pennsylvania, you can actually download audiobooks for three weeks at a time from most libraries… You don’t even have to come into the building.

For the more serious readers out there use your local university library.

Many of us here have someone in the family enrolled in a university. My wife is a student and the collection of books at their library is mind-boggling. They even have hard-to-find books, and you can also request inter-library loans from other universities in the state. Also, as a student there is no limit on how many books you can take out at a time, and you get to keep it for much longer than public libraries.

As for “is there any kind of like…video rental store but for books? would make things alot cheaper, plus once one person had read one the next person can get enjoyment from it etc”, some libraries are renting bestsellers and newly released DVDs on a weekly basis (sometimes, just a $1). This is a way to increase revenue for items in high demand.

If anyone wants to start a Blockbuster version of a library, I got a ton of books to get started

There is an old saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover”. A lot of people who are struggling financially to impress their neighbors should try to think about what that really means.

On the one hand it means you shouldn’t judge people based on their frugal habits, but the other side of the coin is that you shouldn’t let others judge you based on yours. If people don’t like you because you pay for your pizza in change, I say screw ‘em. I don’t care what they think anyway. In fact, I would probably ‘lose track’ and start from the beginning again just to spite them — several times.

Well, six months from now, in Clackamas County Oregon where JD lives, it may be no laughing matter. The county has pledged to close the libraries (except for some operated by individual cities) and get rid of the books, unless a library tax is passed.
I sincerely hope the tax increase passes (for many of us the tax is cheaper than what we’d spend at Amazon in a couple of months, or even at a book rental place). But if it doesn’t pass, the book rental business might be a great idea right here. I’m sure there are other parts of the country that have lost or will lose their libraries.

for books i use swaptree.com

all you do is list the items you have and the items you want, and swaptree’s trade algorithms instantly find the members who want what you have and have what you want. it’s free to list items you have and want, and the only price is postage. it’s like getting brand new books, music, movies, and games for around $2.50 no matter what they are!

I have to say that a public library isn’t available to everyone. If you are outside of the tax district funding the library, you pay for the service, and in some areas, that’s a hefty price. Also, believe it or not, some people do not have internet access at home. So a rental might be good for them.

For me, I love the local library, and the kids and I visit once a week. But, if someone has it in their budget and accessing a library isn’t practical, I think there is nothing wrong with the book rental.

I’m not exactly sure why a lot of people seems to be amused about a book rental store concept – they actually do exist. Well, around my town area at least. There are only a handful libraries in my country, and mostly around the town area.

I’ve only used book rental once; they’ve got quite a good collection of old books/novels which most likely escape the collection of the public libraries (we have a low reading culture; slightly higher in the urban areas). Here’s how it works: say a book cost around 10 bucks, you’ll pay about 12 bucks and get to keep it for 2-3 weeks, and then when you returned it, you’ll get 10 bucks back (with the 2 bucks being the rental fee).

Regarding the idea that your taxes pay for libraries, they don’t do so completely. My sister is a librarian and they get less funding every year from taxes and are increasingly pressured to raise their own funds through sales of donated books that aren’t borrowed often or books that several copies were purchased of to meet high initial demand that has since fallen off (think 4 copies of the new Harry Potter in the first year and now 1 or 2 will suffice).

Libraries also have to hustle big and generous donors for funds and think of ways to convince people to contribute money. Her library has done everything from allow “memorial bricks” set in the lobby wall for $25 a pop to making their own CDs and DVDs of old films and photos which were donated to them to selling tote bags and cookbooks. They still are struggling to find money for ongoing upgrade expenses so that the library is a more useful place for people to come (that includes software and a computer lab with free internet).

Your taxes are only paying for libraries in part and they aren’t paying very well. If a library is in poor condition, it is because of a lack of funding. The best thing you can do if you want a good library as a resource is to write your representatives and state governor and demand that libraries be funded well. Also, patronize them often. Funding is based in part on usage figures.

Government currently views libraries as outdated and unimportant because of the Internet. If you value them, do what you can to support them.

Shari – you are right to be concerned. Where I live there is a county-wide federation of libraries. The tax dollar is NOT funding the operation 100%. Other sources of revenue include donations and fees. One suburban library actually has an office supplies jar by the checkout. However, in our system, there is a talk toward evolving to a mobile/self-service system. Don’t know the details but it’s all an attempt to maintain some semblance of the public library concept.

IMHO, I think some people underestimate the concept of a library. I’m not alone in suggesting that at the root of the global competitive advantage that we Americans enjoy is the free access to information. Let us all keep in mind that Thomas Edison wasn’t born with all that knowledge: he had to get it. Where did he get it? Read about it here: http://www.theadvocates.org/freeman/9502powe.html
History has taught us that knowledge is extremely enlightening and powerful. What better than unfettered access?

I’ll be honest – I actually asked the question about a book rental service, as well! BUT (and this is a big but), I didn’t forget about the library before I asked it. I was thinking of my mother, who doesn’t go to the library, but is hooked on buying book and on Netflix – turns out there really is a “Netflix for books,” which I told her about. Of course, I finished my sentence with “Or we could just, you know, GO TO THE LIBRARY!”