Stumbled on a library report about book repair costs

Honestly, I was looking through the annual report from the Seattle Public Library system and saw they spent over $12,000 last year just on commercial book repair for their circulating collection. Tbh, I had no idea the scale of that need was so big for public libraries. Has anyone here ever done contract work for a library system, and how does their process usually work?

3 comments

3 Comments

michaeld4810d ago

Wow, that report probably doesn't even count the volunteer hours! My local branch has a whole crew of retired folks who come in to tape spines and mend pages for free, which must save a ton. Makes you wonder what the real total cost of keeping a book alive is, right?

lindag3310d ago

That number seems low honestly... like for a whole city system. The wear and tear is constant, especially on kids books and popular stuff. They probably have in-house staff doing basic fixes too before they even send things out. It's a huge hidden cost that keeps things circulating. Makes you appreciate how much work goes into keeping a public resource like that running.

janah8310d ago

Totally get it, that number is just the tip of the iceberg. I used to volunteer at my old town's library and we had a whole back room just for mending. The amount of simple fixes we did on the daily, like re-gluing picture book pages or taping up paperbacks, was insane. It's a constant battle against normal wear and tear that most people never even see. Makes that 12k seem like a drop in the bucket for a whole city system.