FEE FOR HOLDS NOT PICKED UP

("Hold shelf" Pink slips = name of patron and 'Hold Until' date, written by hand, serial reservers on bottom)

Long overdue (library humor), LAPL will now charge patrons $1.00/book for "holds" (material requested from other branches) not picked up. It's about time! You see, every morning save for Saturdays (small mercies), the dreaded "Delivery" comes in. These are books/cd's/videos returned to all the other libraries throughout the system (72 in all), subsequently sent back to the owning branch. Along with these returns comes the material patron's request that we do not have or are very popular. Every morning these have to be scanned and labeled with patrons name on a date (10 days from arrival date). After which time, if they are not picked up, they are sent back to the owning branch OR sent off to another requestee. Nothing is more time/resource consuming as these "holds". Nothing! In fact, a recent audit of the whole process found that every single item requested adds up to about a half hr of work/pay. Amazing, considering 1.5 million holds are placed every year. The Library Board of Commissioners recently approved this measure.

Of course, this probably won't mean less work for us clerks in the mornings (in fact at our branch, it often takes 2 clerks 2-3 hrs to finish the "holds" every day. We have (and i'm sure other branches are no different), serial, habitual, shopper patrons who request literally hundreds, if not thousands of books a year, coming from all over the city--from San Pedro to West Hills. And every night we send out/back, at times dozens of items not picked up. This has been has been going on for several years now...what government waste/inefficiency?! "Well our taxes pay for it!" Actually, about 3 cents a year of your annual local taxes go to the public library! And every single book request costs the city a half hour of work! The only socialist institution in the U.S.and A! Socialists--all of you!

So, in the end, us clerks will have to take the brunt of the complaints from patrons who will not doubt argue about not being notified, were on vacation, were sick, got tired of waiting for the item and couldn't make it to pick it up... Less material may be requested...we can only hope.

From our friends downtown:

"Placing a hold is free. However, effective March 5, 2007 a $1.00 fee will be charged if an item placed on hold is not canceled or picked up before the 'Hold Unitl date.

Holds are still free. A fee will only be charged if a hold is not canceled or picked up by the 'Hold Unitl' date. Over 1.5 million holds are placed per year. The intent is to prevent in-demand material from being kept out of circulation and unavailable to many customers. This will enable popular titles to keep moving through the system and be more readily available to the public.

We hope you will continue to enjoy the highly popular holds service offered by the Los Angeles Public Library. There are three different methods of notification: E-mail, (tele)phone, and postcard. If possible, patrons are encouraged to take advantage of e-mail notification of holds, the quickest and most efficient form. It is essential that information in your patron record is accurate so that you will receive notification."