# How Much Would You Pay For Your Library Card? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 24, 2010, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-you-pay-for-your-library-card/544421 "2010-06-24T23:28:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2010, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-you-pay-for-your-library-card/544421/1 "2010-06-24T23:28:31Z")
I renewed my card to the public library in Chicago. And I to to thinking that it is a great deal and I’m very lucky as Chicago has an excellent library. Books, books on tape, e-books, downloadable audiobooks,dvd, VHS, CDs, free internet, free classes on computers and English as a second language, afternoon reading programs for toddlers. And you can place holds on books at ANY library and they deliver it to your local branch for pick up. And this also includes access to a lot of local databases like the Chicago Tribune historical archive, the Chicago Defender archives, current online papers and such I would easily pay $100 a year for my library card considering how much I use it. So how much would you pay for your local library card? ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2010, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-you-pay-for-your-library-card/544421/2 "2010-06-24T23:37:49Z")
Don’t give them ideas! When I lived in Oakville, I got a non-resident membership in the Mississauga library, which was much larger, in the city next door, and a lot closer to work. The membership cost $20/year, I believe. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-you-pay-for-your-library-card/544421/3 "2010-06-25T00:10:52Z")
I happen to know that black market library cards here go for five bucks. Coincidentally, that’s also how much a blowjob from a crack whore will cost you in the 900’s. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-you-pay-for-your-library-card/544421/4 "2010-06-25T00:17:56Z")
My public library is free. However, the university library (much better than the entire public library system put together) costs $100/year, even for alumni (like me.) This university are total assholes. First, I have graduated college from 2 different schools. The first school allows me to have alumni privileges for the rest of my life. At any time, I can use their library, resources, and personnel for free. The other school charges for everything, even bicycle parking. The library is so cheap, they change the copy cards every few months just so they can make money off keeping the $1 deposit fees (you get like 30 minutes after the change to redeem your previous copy card and get the deposit back.) To answer your question, I wouldn’t pay for a library card, ever, and I would personally take a dump in the university library’s lobby rather than give them another dime. ---
**Author:** ![heathen\_earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/13edae/32.png) [@heathen\_earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heathen_earthling)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-you-pay-for-your-library-card/544421/5 "2010-06-25T00:40:42Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Coincidentally, that’s also how much a blowjob from a crack whore will cost you in the 900’s. There were crack whores 1100 years ago? ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-you-pay-for-your-library-card/544421/6 "2010-06-25T00:43:28Z")
Wait, what on earth is a black market library card good for?? And **Superhal** , your universities let alumni in at all?? I don’t think I could get into my university’s library without giving them my firstborn child. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-you-pay-for-your-library-card/544421/7 "2010-06-25T00:46:21Z")
$100/year is actually the number that I was thinking of when I read the thread title, before looking at the OP. My public library gives me a lot more value than that, but that’s what I could budget for if I had to. (Although, sigh, with overdue fines due to me being completely scatterbrained sometimes, it probably works out to more than that anyway.) ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-you-pay-for-your-library-card/544421/8 "2010-06-25T00:49:22Z")
We just had this conversation with some friends. Their community voted not to pay the library tax to the city. Now if they want a card, it’s $90. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-you-pay-for-your-library-card/544421/9 "2010-06-25T01:02:18Z")
Like most who use it frequently, i use it to save the price of buying books. Mine will get a book if it is in the system and email me if they find it. They will give me a 1 week hold. When I see a book on Book TV and ask about it, they often get it. They got me Grants autobiography last year. It took a while to read that. But I really could not afford much. Retirees have to keep it cheap. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-you-pay-for-your-library-card/544421/10 "2010-06-25T16:16:49Z")
> [@dangermom](#): > > Wait, what on earth is a black market library card good for?? > > And **Superhal** , your universities let alumni in at all?? I don’t think I could get into my university’s library without giving them my firstborn child. Getting online. The 900’s as in the Dewey Decimal number for history, which happens to be in a back corner. Crack whores and Holocaust literature, two great tastes that… never mind. ---
**Author:** ![peedin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peedin/32/14095_2.png) [@peedin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peedin)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-you-pay-for-your-library-card/544421/11 "2010-06-25T16:24:07Z")
I’m about 50 miles west of Chicago and a non-resident library card will cost you over $300 a year (i.e., you live in unincorporated St. Charles and want to use the St. Charles library). $90 a year is a steal. Considering the resources my public library offers, I’d easily pay $50 a month for the privilege of a card. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-you-pay-for-your-library-card/544421/12 "2010-06-25T16:36:46Z")
Apparently about $70/year. That’s what I had to pay last year in fines, and I’m on track to hit it again this year. _facepalm_ I love my library, though. For a small city in a state with some serious fiscal problems, the Ann Arbor Public Library is pretty great. They have loads of DVDs and are good about getting new CDs so I can check out new music for free. It’s open seven days a week, even! Libraries are something that we take for granted in industrialized countries, but they are a wonderful luxury. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-you-pay-for-your-library-card/544421/13 "2010-06-25T16:39:02Z")
I think a library card–that is, one person’s personal use of a decent library–is certainly _worth_ more than $100/year, compared to not having any library. Probably much more, if one is getting all the use one can. But I also think that free public libraries, as such, are a social good. Communities with good free libraries are better communities for _all_ their residents. So I’d rather pay more in taxes, to maintain a free library, than any smaller fee just for my personal access. ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-you-pay-for-your-library-card/544421/14 "2010-06-25T16:46:50Z")
I’ve never had to pay for a library card. Heck when I was growing up the Fort Vancouver Regional Library System didn’t even have library cards. You just filled out a form when you wanted to check out books and walked away with them. They didn’t even have overdue fines. They’d just eventually stop letting you take out new books if you had too many overdue books. That just meant you started putting a different name on the form and hoped the circulation clerk didn’t recognize you. Since I haven’t used my library card in approximately 3 years I guess I would pay $0 for a library card. However, since I do occasionally use the library (just not to check out books) I would gladly pay $5 for entry. Though maybe the $30,000 I spent getting my MLS should get me free entry. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-you-pay-for-your-library-card/544421/15 "2010-06-25T16:57:05Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > The 900’s as in the Dewey Decimal number for history, which happens to be in a back corner. Crack whores and Holocaust literature, two great tastes that… never mind. Dammit. Wish you had not elaborated.I searched “dewey decimal 900” and pretty much figured out what you were saying.😉 ---
**Author:** ![Gus\_Gusterson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85f322/32.png) [@Gus\_Gusterson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gus_Gusterson)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-you-pay-for-your-library-card/544421/16 "2010-06-25T17:08:22Z")
For the current fiscal year, $19.22 per $100,000 of the assessed value of my house goes to pay for the town’s library out of the property taxes we pay. Our house is assessed at a bit over $500,000, so we’re paying about $100 for our library cards. ---
**Author:** ![melodyharmonius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/melodyharmonius/32/21310_2.png) [@melodyharmonius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/melodyharmonius)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-you-pay-for-your-library-card/544421/17 "2010-06-25T17:15:56Z")
i think it is worth more than this, by far. But I would not be upset if my local library started charging $10/yr for residents or $20/yr for non-resident access to the library. And maybe $1 for a 30-day access privilege. That way it would keep more of our libraries open here in CharMeck and still be affordable to low-income families who depend on it. ---
**Author:** ![howye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9adbd/32.png) [@howye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/howye)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-you-pay-for-your-library-card/544421/18 "2010-06-25T17:21:54Z")
I pay $44.86 in taxes every year for the Columbus Metropolitan Library. As it is rated as the best public library in the country, I think I get a pretty darn good deal. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-you-pay-for-your-library-card/544421/19 "2010-06-25T17:32:46Z")
I would pay a grand total of $00.00. I hardly ever use it. I prefer to buy books. ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-you-pay-for-your-library-card/544421/20 "2010-06-25T17:34:27Z")
Nothing, even when I was reading two books a week, it is cheaper to buy the books than deal with the outrageous late fees the library forces you to pay. I’ve paid close to $200 to L.A.P.L. ☹ [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-you-pay-for-your-library-card/544421.md?page=2)