here is the article from the detroit free press. what
a joke, we all need to send them a letter, it is a
PUBLIC LIBRARY - that is absolutely ridiculous. I was
just on a trip to michigan to use that library and I
guess it was fortunate that I went before they started
charging. I am absolutely outraged by this, state
funds created the library for public use..... we need
to start a petition on this one.
Detroit's library to make some users pay
June 21, 2004
BY JEANNE MAY
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
The Detroit Public Library, which long has allowed
non-Detroiters to check out books and freely use its
special collections, will stop the generosity Aug. 1.
Nonresidents will have to pay $100 per year for a
library card if they want to take out books or use the
Burton Historical Collection, the E. Azalia Hackley
Music and Performing Arts Collection and the National
Automotive Collection.
They will still be allowed to go in the library and
use the other materials free.
And the library may carve out some concessions before
the new program goes into effect.
"We are still working out the details," said Juliet
Machie, the library's director for public services, on
Friday.
The library might offer a smaller fee for the onetime
use of a collection and open all three collections
free to users who need no help from librarians.
"The reality is we've lost $6 million from state
funds," Machie said. "For the Burton collection, 60
percent of the users are not from Detroit, and for the
auto collection, 75 percent of the users do not live
in Detroit."
The library has 450,000 customers, about 150,000 of
whom live in ZIP Codes outside Detroit.
Charging library fees for outsiders is nothing new in
Michigan.
By 2002, 52.2 percent of state libraries were charging
nonresident fees.
"It's been creeping upward, and I wouldn't be
surprised if it went up again next year," said Ann
Holt, public policy chair of the Michigan Library
Association.
"In good times, libraries are generous, but with the
economy we are living with these days, Kalamazoo, Ann
Arbor, Canton and other libraries look to fees as a
way to augment their budgets."
That explanation doesn't satisfy Charles Hyde, a Wayne
State University history professor who often uses the
Detroit library.
"Members of the general society have given substantial
money over the years to the Burton, and now they are
going to have to pay $100 for the privilege of sitting
on their donated furniture," he said.
"I understand the library is having tough times, but
that state funding over the years has helped buy
equipment and books and so forth . . . I think you're
going to find a storm of protest go up starting next
week."
But Hyde's students won't have to pay. Anyone who
attends any Detroit school will get a free library
card. Detroit companies will get free company cards.
But businesses outside Detroit will have to pay the
$100.
Interlibrary loans -- where libraries exchange books
by mail for their customers -- will not be affected.
New library cards for nonresidents will be available
Aug. 1 at all city libraries.
"People think of libraries as being free, but they're
not free," Holt said. "They have to be paid for some
way. And it is true that Detroit has some amazing and
wonderful collections . . .
"To the library world, they are a state treasure."
Contact JEANNE MAY at 586-469-4682 or
may(a)freepress.com.
--- Pam Rietsch <pam(a)livgenmi.com> wrote:
Hi All,
If this is duplicated, please delete, just wanted to
get the word out.
Just read a great article in Dick Eastman's weekly
newsletter. If you are
not currently subbed, you can join at
www.eogn.com
It is the best 60 cents a
week I spend.
Apparently good old Detroit has come up with another
way to screw the
visitors to the city. Anyone that does not live in
the city can no longer
borrow anything from the Detroit Library and or use
any of the special
collections including the phenomenal Burton
Historical Collection located at
the main branch. The only way you can access it is
to purchase a card for
$100 a year. I think I will contact them and demand
back all the things I
have donated to the collection over the years :(( I
also know now that I
will never donate to them again, will change that to
the State Library.
This is now just another slap in the face to tell
people you are not welcome
in the city of Detroit, we do not want you and we do
not want you to visit
our collections, unless you bring a LARGE wallet
:(((
Pam