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.
That calculator is quite interesting – I don’t keep a library list as you do though I do keep track of the books I read and from what source. But on checking, I have read 10 books from the library this year so far – and 2 more on hold – 69 on my library list for the future. I wanted to check how they valued each item – some are on the high retail end (compare to buying full price new) but still good to put a value on what you use – asking a question at information is valued at $15! And you wouldn’t have spent $8000 yourself on movies, magazines and books – you would have read a lot less, or different source. It does show that it is great value for a ‘free’ service, which we do pay for in taxes. I have also made a donation a few times to the Library so they can buy more books etc.
I find going to the library is an outing for the family during the summer and I always sign my kids up for the free library programs aswell. I hope one day they add thatcost in the calculator aswell one.
We also download alot of ebooks from the library and they were listed as quite high, I could probubly get most off of amazon for cheaper however borrowing ebooks vs buy is the cheapest way to go 🙂
I also love the Baby Rhyme time program that the library runs. 8 weeks of fun for my son and his Nana! Libraries are great!
(My favorite job as a teen was as a summer helper at the library. I got to read all of the new issues of magazines before they hit the shelves hehe).
Yep we get our money’s worth! At just over $6000 I think it’s great! I honestly don’t know what we’d do without the library.
And don’t forget you can rent video games too – for free. Try before you buy!