what happens if you lose a book or tape from the library?

[joko]

I expect you just pay for it - but is it a full price or penalty charge?

Could you replace it yourself?

could you offer, say, 4 or 5 new books or tapes as a replacement?

thanks

[gary baldy]

They usually just charge you what it cost them to buy it themselves in the first place. This can work in your favour if the book is quite old and not rare.
On the inside front cover of most library books will be the cost price on a label.
Ive 'lost' a couple of books and been charged 4 or 5 quid which is well below what they are worth on the open market but the library cant be seen to be making a profit out of lost books.
I suppose if a book is quite rare and valuable they wouldnt be lending it out but if they did i'm sure this would be reflected in the 'fine' should you 'lose' it.
I'm sure the same goes for tapes and cds.

[rogerr]

A charge is made for a lost book, but there is no extra penalty.
The charge can be reduced in some cases for old age or wear and tear of the item. And we accept replacement with the same item.

[saxy_jag]

In our libraries it's at the librarian's discretion, although technically, the borrower would be asked to pay the replacement price of a new or fairly new item (we remove them from stock at something like 27 issues, depending on condition).

However, if the item lost is an inter library loan, and especially if it's from the British Library, then fees can be very heavy. We sent one out last week that had been loaned from the British Library. It has a borrower replacement cost of something like �140.

[angelap]

In the libray that i work at we charge whatever we paid for the book. but depending how old it is 10% of the price is taken off every year.
The lowest amount we would charge for a lost book would be �2 Sometimes depending on the situation we would also charge any fines that are outstanding on it.