I will ignore your “what?”
State law as interpreted by the Wisconsin courts allows any level of government from the state level down to the sanitary district to charge $.25 per copy. They have determined that to be reasonable. Never mind that it may have been when the court decision was made, years ago, and that costs have declined since, but that’s the fallback policy if anyone asks.
It’s bullshit, of course, but it’s government bullshit. That makes it right.
People pick their battles strangely a lot of the time. I get so much shit over the 22c (government mandated) plastic bag charge, even when transactions are in the hundreds of euros.
Have costs declined? Around here, costs for paper, ink/toner, and repair services have gone up significantly in the last 10 years.
Frankly, zsofia, I’d pit any joker who calls singular me “y’all”. That shit has *got *to stop. Doesn’t matter if they’re entitled little maggots or not.
I would get shit all the time when I worked in a copy shop because we charged more for full-service copies than for the self-service ones! :smack:
“Yes, sir, I know the self-service machines only charge 5.5 cents a page. But you didn’t use the self-service machine, you asked me to copy it for you. That costs 7 cents a page. Yes, in fact, they do pay part of my wages out of that difference. Do you think I’m getting rich doing this?”
Never mind.
The power plugs in my library are on the lamp stands on the tables and carrels.
Good rule of thumb about human nature: the less something costs, the more people will bitch about it.
Seriously, when we’ve agreed to help out a client with some quick task at a minimal fee, it inevitably dragged out into an interminable mess because they’d reject everything we did and demand it done again and again and again and… When we charge up the nose and out the ass, they’re as happy as can be with everything we produce.
Many people will judge your worth based on what you charge, so if you charge next to nothing, they will treat you and your work and opinions accordingly. Doing favors for them is rarely worthwhile.
Adding on to that thought . . .
I’m a freelance copyeditor, and many of my colleagues work mostly if not exclusively electronically because they don’t like dealing with paper. Some charge rates of 50 cents to $1.00 per page for printouts, simply because they don’t want to do it, and they set their rates that way to encourage clients to get their printouts elsewhere. Also, most home-office printers aren’t intended for high-volume use, so for us it can be more expensive per sheet.
I don’t get enough requests to print to make such rates worth my while (I charge 10 cents a page for B&W and 20 cents for color), but if I did, you bet I’d be charging through the nose. Then again, my clients aren’t the general public.
I was once witness to an extended battle over library copier charges. A woman showed up on April 14 needing tax forms. The library had the standard IRS-issued loose-leaf binder containing one of each form, available for copying. But the instructions (from the IRS) very clearly say that the customer must pay copier charges (which in this case were $.10 each - a bargain).
She pretty much threw a fit over this. She claimed that the distinction between a local library and a federal bureaucracy was unimportant - it was all “the government” which clearly owed her all the forms she fancied, free of charge. She got very loud and emotional about this - enough to ensure that everyone in the library knew of her grievance. After a good 10 minutes of strife and agony, the long-suffering library folks finally got her moderately calmed down - but it was a bad scene for a while.
I’ve thrown away so many tons of paper from free-printing computer labs you wouldn’t believe it. What particularly pisses me off is when people not only somehow don’t notice that the document they’re printing is about 300 pages, but when they realize it they just leave it there. OR OR OR… ever had the people who hit print, and when it doesn’t print immediately (because the printer’s out of paper or jammed or whatever) they decide they didn’t hit print hard enough so they just hit it 32 more times, meaning that whoever else is waiting on something has to wait an hour while their dumb ass’s printing jobs come out (I’ve never worked where there was a printer whose ‘cancel print job’ worked very well, and you’ve no idea how many times they hit print) and a gallon of ink and small copse of trees gets felled to print out pages nobody wants to read in the first place. This is exactly why I’d love to charge for printing.
That said, I think .20 is a bit excessive, but I totally understand it’s not your decision. I think .20 per minute/.49 per page bw/$1.99 per page color is excessive for using a computer at Kinkos, but then knowing that the few times I’ve used Kinkos (when my comp is on the fritz or I’ve been out of town without a laptop) I’ve been reeeeeallly conservative (though I swear they deliberately keep their computers slow as molasses to run up the meter).
And, of course, the kids who tend to get dropped off like this are generally not your quiet bookish types, who will be more than happy to find a few books or whatever and sit down to read. Nope, these kids are the ones who have never been taught that the whole world is not a playground, nor have they been taught about inside and outside voices.
I’ll grant you that some of the adults are quite as bad. I think that librarians should be issued a taser each, and the license to use it as they see fit.
I’ve got an idea…if you don’t like the price of copying, buy your own copier or just don’t use ours…go somewhere else (and on your way there, fuck yourself).
Cost, mostly. For someone to come in and plug their laptop in would cost x in electricity usage. For a lot of users, that adds up. I know businesses that actually sealed up their extra outlets once it became obvious that people were taking advantage of free electricity in addition to the free wireless. It’s a cost-cutting measure, and it wouldn’t surprise me if my local Starbucks hasn’t done it, or won’t do it soon.
Being able to limit your laptop time and restricting where you can plug it in to charge it is also a way for the library to control your behavior since you can’t hide in the stacks for several hours, doing Lord knows what. Before my uni put in designated laptop areas with outlets, people would watch porn, play MMORPG games, and so forth. Now you’re limited to whatever life your battery has.
Robin
I let her slide on that because I assumed she meant the library and the librarians and other staff in general, not just me specifically. Although I don’t know how much we really take in in copier and printer fees - I might want a singular “y’all” when it comes to paying my salary out of it after all. Probably not, though.
I assume the reason for 20 cents is that it’s a deterrent - you only print what you need. Same for the copier. Also, the microfilm machines are 20 cents, nickels only, and that’s been since the dawn of time, so perhaps it’s for consistency. I mean, it’s a convenience service - if you want really pristine copies, take your happy ass to Kinko’s. I’ll very happily give you a map and draw a little route on it - is that customer service or what?
Hey, what are you bitchin’ about? As a librarian, your whole existence revolves around answering questions. You are supposed to be a repository of human knowledge.
Still, there’s nothing wring with starting every answer with the phrase, “Hey, go fuck yourself…”
The lowest bidder?
So the sum total result of my masters’ degree is “Hey, go fuck yourself, the bathroom’s in the corner under that pink wall”, right? 'Cause, just checking.
I’m inclined to believe that a major part of the problem is that the way they’ve got things configured, your cafe looks like it’s a part of the library.
Well, you can’t bring your own food into the library, either!