What the library could learn from Netflix. Evanston Now, 8/16/2011.
Excerpt: Evanston's Public Library Board is demanding more power to tax residents, but a library district in California has come up with a new way to generate revenue from its users.
The library in Hayward, Calif., a San Francisco suburb of 144,000 people, has chosen to offer residents the option of paying to borrow material from the library the way subscribers to the movie rental service Netflix do -- with a fixed monthly fee. In return, they're never charged a fine for overdue books.
In its recent study of sustainable funding, an Evanston library task force discussed just four choices -- three tax schemes plus charitable fundraising. None involved generating more revenue from library services.
But while that report was being written, Hayward was launching -- to considerable publicity in the library world -- its plan, believed to be the first in the nation.
Hayward's library director, Sean Reinhart, says the program is designed to appeal most to the 20 percent of the library's users who have been blocked from further borrowing because of unpaid library fines.
According to the library's website, Any circulating item in the Hayward Public Library collection may be borrowed on the “Fines-Free” plan.
Current Wisconsin library law does not allow for such a "fines-free" program.
TODAY
Netflix shenanaigans: what libraries can learn. (Libraries and Archives for Generation Y, 9/19/2011)
Excerpt: Librarians work hard to improve service, but aside from putting up some flyers, how much do we communicate those changes? We want to believe that our changes matter to our patrons, matter for librarianship. But do we overlook effective, user-centered communication in favor of change or action?
I suspect that Netflix is already being used an example of how to tarnish a brand.
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