Dear Frances,
- is there a market willing to pay, or are we just forcing them into it? I'm sure if we prodded people long enough (with threats to remove the service if they didn't) they would be willing to pay for many things (including books loans at the very thick end of the wedge). But this would really damage our 'brand'.
- 'There are those who can pay and should' - are you assumping that only the wealthy attend reading groups? I assure you that in my authority our network is extremely mixed: would you make some members of a group pay and others not? To suggest that
Those who can pay often do - they buy books from private sector enterprises called bookshops (many of which are also struggling in the current climate). Why would they continue to use our service if we charged them on top of what they already pay in tax? Again, the damage to libraries as a service would be immense.
At bottom - if any of our services actually made any money, they would have been privatised already!
Cheers,
David
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