Urbandale Library Board Votes to Raise Fees, Fines

The cost of using the Urbandale Library will go up July 1.

With just enough members for a quorum, the Urbandale Library Board of Trustees voted 4-0 to raise several library fines and fees.

The action was prompted by the Urbandale City Council's direction to library trustees earlier this year to find ways to generate revenue or cut costs.

The city did not cut the library's budget this year, but the message was clear that library might not be as lucky next year.

The library board approved these changes:

• Library fines will go from 10 cents a day to 15 cents a day.
• The cost of using library fax machines will increase from 25 cents a page to $1 a page.
• Ordering a book from another library will go from $1.25 to $1.50 per book.
• The library will begin charging for-profit groups $25 an hour to use library meeting rooms.
• Library users who place a hold on a book, but do not pick it up will pay a fine of 50 cents per item. There has not been a charge up until now.
• The library's book sale will begin charging $1 for hardback books, as opposed to 25 cents. The library periodically sells materials from its collection.

Library Director Julie Wells said many of the fees and fines are consistent with what other metro libraries have been charging.

Fining patrons for not picking up books they have put on hold "may not be popular, it may not be a good pr move, but it would help with our work," said Wells.

The new fees will take effect July 1, except for the meeting room fees, which will become effective in January 2013.

The library board has been discussing raising fees for three months. Last month the board sought public input.

Sorrel Brown, an avid library user, came to the board meeting Monday night and asked the board to reconsider its plan to raise the cost of interlibrary loans.

"I use the interlibrary loans a lot. I just thought that going from $1.25 to $2 was a little bit of a jump… A lot of your budget would be my money because I use the service a lot," she said, laughing.

Wells said raising the fee would generate less than $500.

The average postage cost to mail books between libraries is $2.60 per book, she said. The state gives libraries 93 cents per book, so the $1.25 charge doesn't quite cover costs. The board decided to cut the proposed increase from $2 to $1.50