LAPL Kills $1 Holds Proposal

After the Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL) proposed reinstating a $1 charge to reserve or place a hold on books, citizen resistance has killed the plan. While the Library Commission on March 20 approved a new Fines and Fees Schedule, to go into effect July 1, a month later it instead approved a revised measure, without the fee, but with an increase in fines. Activists and preservationists Kim Cooper and Richard Schave, who regularly use LAPL resources for historic research, created the saveLAPL.org web site and generated nearly 900 email messages asking the library not to impose the holds fee. (The web site also encouraged readers to contribute to LAPL, given the library's need to help with the city's $400 million shortfall.)

The campaign worked. “I am overwhelmed by the passion and concerns for the value of library services in our city expressed by hundreds of people in the e-mails,” wrote city librarian Fontayne Holmes. “Had we anticipated this kind of a response, we would not have made the recommendation. We really thought that we were reinstituting a library holds fee that we previously had for decades...a fee that was 50¢ when it was discontinued in 1994.” (Of the 31 library systems LAPL surveyed in Southern California, 12 currently charge 50¢–$1 for a hold.)

The increase in revenue from the fines is expected to match that sought from the holds fee. Cooper and Schave commented, “You have been heard! Keep watching this site for more news of threats to the Library as the City budget is worked out and ways you can speak up about how important a well-funded Library is to the people of Los Angeles.”