Library Buzz: Get Your Money's Worth

(Originally published in the Andover American 7/4/13. "Library Buzz" is written by Toria Hamilton.)

I know it’s normally a taboo subject, but today I’d like to talk about money. In the past twelve months, I’ve saved over $1900 without changing my lifestyle and you can too.

Here’s the short version: libraries save money.

Here’s the long version:

America’s free public libraries aren’t really free: you pay for them with your taxes. Specifically, less than one percent of your tax dollars goes towards the public library system. Here at the Andover Public Library, we use that money to purchase books, movies, and audiobooks, and to provide services like public access computers and children’s story times, to name only a few.

Since you’ve already paid for these “free” services, if you haven’t used your library lately you’re not getting your money’s worth.

For example, to see how much money I saved this year, I checked my library record. While we don’t normally keep records of the items our patrons check out, patrons can request to keep such a record when they show their library card or driver’s license at the circulation desk. My record shows I’ve checked out 158 items since July 1, 2012 - 29 audiobooks, 81 books, and 48 DVDs. According to Amazon.com (and a lot of math), I’ve saved $1962 by using the library instead of buying these things.

But it’s not just about how much money I personally saved – it spreads to the entire community. How many times have you bought a book you’ve only read once or twice? I’ve seen a single $4.00 paperback circulate more than seventy times before it fell to pieces. That’s seventy people who saved $4.00, or a combined savings of $280 for a single item. When you multiply that savings by the 48,000 items we have in the library, it quickly adds up.

Your own mileage may vary. The more you use the library, the more you save. You can buy loads of children’s books that your kids will outgrow later, or you can have a rotating collection from the library that grows and matures with them. You can buy the hot new title that everyone is talking about or you can join the discussion for free by checking it out from the library.

There’s more to it, of course. It’s hard to fit all the mathematical details into a brief newspaper column, especially when there are so many variables, but I’ll say it again: libraries save money. Visit us at Andover Public Library soon to start some savings of your own.