Dave Smith wrote:
....
> I have to wonder about some of the parents I see with their kids at the
> library. They go to the checkout and each kid has more than a dozen
> books. I appreciate that the kids are interested in reading, but I think
> that is really abusing a free service. They can take a few, read them,
> bring them back and get some more. Leave something for other people.
> People abuse the DVDs too. One day the woman checking out ahead of me
> had more than 2 dozen videos. That's more than three videos a day for
> the one week loan period. I would have no problem with a 3 movie limit.

as a previous librarian i would always be happy to
check out as many books as a person could keep track
of and reliably return on time and in good condition.

children's books are fairly short. i've seen some
families check out 50-100 books for several kids. i
was happy. i loved that they were reading and being
read to. it also helped in that it kept space on
shelves. that library wasn't that big - it has moved
the past few years so that is very nice to have more
space.

i have a set of books i need to ask them if they
want back now that they have more space. it would
free up a whole shelf for me if they did.

dvds i can see there being a demand issue that it
would be reasonable for some of the newer ones to
have a limit. we currently have about a dozen dvds
checked out to watch (that is about all Mom watches
at night now).


songbird