The Value of a Library

Pipestone County Star 06-19-2014

I grew up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and when I was a child, I would take the city bus downtown to the library on afternoons when I had nothing better to do.  I would find books and sit in the stacks and read until it was time to go home and I was never happier.  I couldn’t imagine growing up without a public library.

With all the severe weather over the past few years, fires, hurricanes, flooding, many public libraries have been damaged and had to relocate or rebuild, causing them to be unavailable until construction or renovations are complete.

What would happen if you lost your public library?  What do you think you would have to pay for the services the library provides if you no longer had access to them? 

Let’s start with materials.  If you only check out one book every two weeks (we’ll assume it’s a hardcover fiction book), you are saving yourself somewhere in the neighborhood of $50 a month.  New, hardcover fiction is right around $25 a book if you purchase them from Barnes and Noble.  Amazon sometimes has them cheaper, but then you have to pay for shipping (unless you buy more than $35 at a time or are a Prime member).  If you come and read the magazines at the library rather than subscribing, you save approximately $1.50 per magazine that you read each month by not having a subscription to your home.  Videos are $3, roughly, if you check them out at the video store.  Let’s say you check out a movie to enjoy with the family each weekend – checking them out at the library saves $12 a month.  So if you use the library for books, magazines, and videos, you save about $70 a month, or $840 a year and I’m just getting started!

Do you like to listen to audio books?  If you purchase them for yourself, you’ll probably spend anywhere from $25 to $40 per book and really, will you listen to it more than once?  If so, great, maybe purchasing is a good option, but if you only plan on one time, then borrowing it makes more sense and saves you money.

Now for some things you might not think about.  We get a lot of reference calls at the library, for directions or for phone numbers, or other community questions.  If you were to call information on your home or cell phone to get this information, you would spend $.75 a call.  Doesn’t sound like that much, but if you call once a week, it would add up over the year to $39!  You could also use the internet to answer those questions and, if you don’t have a computer at home, the internet at the library is free, which saves the average computer owner about $30 a month on internet services (not to mention the cost of a computer).

Special events that are held at the library are free to the public, as are computer classes and craft days.  If you were to pay for those, it would probably cost $15 for an hour of computer time with an instructor and $10 for a craft afternoon, to pay for materials.

So let’s add this up: 2 books a month ($50), 3 magazine subscriptions ($4.50), videos for weekends ($12), an audio book for all the driving ($30), information calls ($3), internet access ($20).  What does that add up to? $129.50.  That’s right – you can save over $125 a month just by using your local library.  Sound like a good deal?  Perhaps I should write this: Public Library = Priceless.

Keep in mind, I only listed the monetary value of physical materials and staff time.  That does not take into account the amount of information that is readily available, nor the amount of access one can get from interlibrary loan and the internet.  The library is used every week for job hunting, social outings, homework, testing sites, meetings, book clubs, and other activities.  These things keep us in touch with each other and the community, and it is impossible to give that connection a price.

Remember that everyone pays taxes for the library: 1.2% of taxes paid to the county of Pipestone go towards the library funding.  Are you using the services provided to get a good return on those tax dollars?  Stop in for a library card and check out a book today!

Services Update: Cypress Resume is now available at the library and at home with your library card!  Ask a librarian for more information – if you are job hunting, then this is the service for you.  Make great resumes with this web-based software that will lay out everything for you.

SRP Update: The Summer Reading Program sign-up has started with weekly activity days starting June 17^th (Tuesday) at 2:00 PM.  We have two special events happening along with SRP this year for our middle and early readers: Swan the Magician at 2:00 PM June 24^th and the Zinghoppers at 2:00 PM July 8^th.  Contact the library for more information about these great events!

PAFL Update:  Pipestone Area Friends of the Library is looking for members – anyone who is a friend to Meinders Library is welcome to join!  The Friends group works hard to promote the library, raise money for projects, and organize their yearly book sale, in addition to the HUGE amount of support they provide throughout the year.  Call for the date of their next meeting.

If you have questions or have a book you’d like to reserve or renew, please don’t hesitate to give us a call at (507) 825-6714.  The summer hours for Meinders Library (starting Memorial Day weekend) are Monday through Thursday from 10 AM – 8 PM, and Friday from 10 AM – 5 PM and Saturday from 10 AM - Noon.  Meinders Community Library is located at 1401 7^th Street SW, on the south side of the high school.