A viral library receipt is causing quite the controversy on the internet this week, especially on Reddit.
A receipt from a public library that displays and keeps track of the amount of money saved by patrons who borrow books instead of buying them is sparking debate online about the thousands of dollars that some say should be going back to authors.
The viral screenshot of a Wichita Public Library receipt was first posted by a Reddit user who had recently noticed that the library was keeping track of the member’s savings throughout the year and since they’ve been using the library.
The user claims that the reciept is a reflection of their six person family who uses the library once per week. However, the $7,078.76 savings that the family has received due to using the library, has people in shock.
Some Reddit users exclaimed ‘What a brilliant idea! What a great way to encourage people to use the local library’.
Others, were not so confident that showing the savings value on a library receipt was such a good thing. These stances were the basis for a serious debate. Should that ‘saved’ money be going to the author’s of the books being borrowed? And, is this a form of stealing from those author’s?
Public library receipt shows how much money you saved by borrowing instead of buying books https://t.co/gRzTc0CEjn pic.twitter.com/ZX6NFMXIOo
— Xeni (@xeni) August 10, 2019
Public library receipt shows how much money you saved by borrowing instead of buying books https://t.co/gRzTc0CEjn pic.twitter.com/ZX6NFMXIOo
— Xeni (@xeni) August 10, 2019
Public library receipt shows how much money you saved by borrowing instead of buying books https://t.co/gRzTc0CEjn pic.twitter.com/ZX6NFMXIOo
— Xeni (@xeni) August 10, 2019
Public library receipt shows how much money you saved by borrowing instead of buying books https://t.co/gRzTc0CEjn pic.twitter.com/ZX6NFMXIOo
— Xeni (@xeni) August 10, 2019
Then there is this person who saved over $25,000 using their local library! Wow!
Yahoo reached out to the library, where they were informed of the following :
The Wichita Public Library states that the program is something that it adopted in 2016 through the Polaris Integrated Library System, which is the software used by the library to manage customer accounts and inventory of the library collection. In a statement, the library’s communications specialist, Sean Jones, assured that the system makes sure to keep track of the cost of an item being borrowed without attaching it to a specific title so that a person’s reading history remains confidential.
A number of other libraries use the same system, and Jones says that the Wichita community, in particular, has responded positively to it.
“Customers enjoy seeing how much money they’re saving by using the Wichita Public Library,” he says. “It creates a great discussion topic among their circle of friends and lets customers encourage friends to use the Library.”
