Library to stop charging for genre fiction

An 80-year-old Dunedin Public Library practice of charging 50c for magazine and genre fiction will end on June 30.

The library had sought to end the practice for some time, as Dunedin was the only metropolitan library to charge for fiction, but there were always concerns about losing the $50,000 to $60,000 the rental charge earned the library.

However, library services manager Bernie Hawke said the loss of revenue would be covered by some of the $90,000 saved by Otago and Southland libraries combining to share computer system costs.

The library had sought to end the practice as analysis had shown while borrowing issues of free fiction were going up, books with a 50c charge were going down, he said.

"There's an anomaly in rental fiction . . . that the most popular genres, romance, suspense, thrillers are borrowed less."

Many rental borrowers were also very conscientious and wanted to pay a staff member straight away which was thought to be a factor in self-checking machine use stabilising at 45% to 50%.

It was hoped that lifting the rental charge would encourage people to use the self-checking machines, he said.

Removing the charge also meant a shift in the library's shelving systems and, as part of the redevelopment of the ground floor which would be completed in July, the genre fiction sections would be enlarged by free fiction and a new classic fiction section would be added.

The classic fiction section would include prize-winning books from the past, cult fiction and works from major authors.

Library staff would be on hand to help people find their way around the new layout.

Charges would remain for Hot Picks magazines, books and DVDs, rentals from the CD and DVD collections and extended loans and hold charges.

rebecca.fox@odt.co.nz

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