College & Research Libraries News (C&RL News) is the official newsmagazine and publication of record of the Association of College & Research Libraries, providing articles on the latest trends and practices affecting academic and research libraries.
In response to the issue of charging library use fees (C&RL News, January 1981, p. 5), we charge $10 per semester. In my estimation, this is not desirable. Since we charge students to use the library, we cannot allow the general public to borrow unless they purchase a Friend of the Library card for $25 per calendar year. This is particularly distressing to public school teachers, many of whom are enrolled in graduate programs offisland and are working on dissertations.
A university committee is studying the fee problem. There are a number of fees and the question is whether or not tuition charges should be raised to include fees, rather than having them listed separately.
Currently 50% of our materials budget comes from fees. Our collection would be in bad shape without this revenue.—D. Joleen Bock, Dean of Library Services, Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Library, Mangilao, Guam.
