Sunday, February 24th, 2008...3:58 pm
Why I Love The Library…
I’ve written in the past about effectively using your public library to expand your own personal one. As I sit here in the Schaumburg Township District Library, I will attempt to do a rough quantification about it’s value/savings - don’t expect Nobel Prize winning economic research here folks.
Photo credit: Tom Harpel
Let’s take a few examples, shall we?
DVDs: often of relatively new releases. Let’s price one of those at about $15. Example: I’m checking out a History Channel documentary on the diamond industry.
Books: we’ll say about $25 a pop for a nice hardcover. Example: I just checked out “A Long Way Gone: Memoirs Of A Boy Soldier” by Ishmael Beah.
Audiobooks: $40 a piece. Example: I’m checking out “The Art Of Victory” by Gregory R. Copley today.
We’ll do the subtotal based on an assumption that you check out just one of each item, one time.
Based on some rough calculations, that’s $80 right there for a week - checking one of each thing one time. Not bad!
Goes to show you that there is truth to the oft-repeated point that you can save some serious bread if you take full advantage of your local library rather than buying everything new. It also provides a great place to study that is away from the distractions of home/loud steaming mochas/screeching adolescents. Most libraries are paid for through taxes - an unavoidable part of life. My take on it is that you might as well get the most from your tax dollars.
Does anyone else have some good stories/comments about their library? Feel free to share.
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