Are you getting your money's worth using the library?

It’s always a joke in our house how much money we save using the library – people love teasing me when they see the stacks of books and movies we get weekly. I’ve become used to using my library list and our system works well for us. So I was happy to see this calculator on the library’s site – you can literally calculate if you are getting your money’s worth!! The average Winnipeg household contributes 70.22$ per year to the library. You punch in how many books, movies, magazines, cd’s etc. you use from the library every month and it calculates it up for you. I just calculated mine now – and the jokers were right – it adds up to over 8000$ a year! And I guessed pretty conversatively, some months my daughter takes out a lot of movies – and I love trying out cd’s with her before buying them.

So, are you getting your money’s worth?

If you like to read but find it hard to find the books you really want make sure to use your library list – they will deliver all your chosen books to the library you specify! Some books have really long wait lists, like in the 200’s so it’s a good idea to add them quickly. For kids movies I always check what’s playing at the cheap theater and add those to the list – that way we are usually around the 10th person or so and we get them quickly. (in the last few weeks we’ve seen rango, gnomeo and juliet, yogi bear so it’s not all old movies!)  All kids movies are free to rent from the library too. If you need ideas for books and movies check the online book stores – you can find new releases, or the certain genres you like for suggestions – the library even has a section you can check their new releases for specific months too.