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Agreed that more data is required to draw any sort of conclusion from this. That said, my understanding of behavioral therapy is that you reward desired behavi
by donw 7y ago
Agreed that more data is required to draw any sort of conclusion from this.
That said, my understanding of behavioral therapy is that you reward desired behaviors and ignore unwanted behaviors. Punishment is also on the table for flagrant violation of the rules, but it needs to be applied equally and immediately.
With that in mind, how does the library system reward good actors -- those that return books on-time, that sort of thing? It's really hard to shape behavior when you have a surplus of sticks and a notable lack of carrots.
- hanoz 7y ago> With that in mind, how does the library system reward good actors -- those that return books on-time, that sort of thing? A reward of an increase in their simultaneous loan allowance might be warmly received perhaps, whilst not actually taken advantage of to any detrimental extent.
- beatgammit 7y agoYeah, people like reaching milestones, so gamify it a bit.
- loeg 7y agoDeposit-return system for books? (Though it has obvious drawbacks that might outweigh any positives.)
- teeray 7y ago> how does the library system reward good actors One thought would be to take a page from airlines and institute the equivalent of status tiers. For example, returning books on time gets you further towards the front of the line when waiting for items on-hold and earlier access to new releases.
- beatgammit 7y agoOr perhaps just more concurrently checked out books. Increase your maximum books for good behavior, decrease it for bad behavior (perhaps minimum of 3 books, maximum of 50 or something like that). Also, show the current no-late steak when checking out books and perhaps publicly display a list of everyone who has a perfect record for a period of time. Also, as for the stick, perhaps temporary suspensions for consistent bad behavior would work.
- vanniv 7y agoMy library (which does still have late fees) does this. You can get 5 books at a time, initially, and you can keep them for 21 days, and you can renew by phone once per book (so long as they're not on reserve for someone else). If you have had your card for >90 days, and have borrowed and returned >10 books, you instead are allowed 20 books at a time (no more than 5 per topic/category), and can renew twice before returning. But if you run up too many fees, you go back to the 5-book-limit.
- geofft 7y agoI wonder if you can redefine the problem to not have a "good actor" distinction. For instance, instead of the normal term-based borrowing, say that every taxpayer gets, say, 10 books at a time, funded by the state (to promote education/culture/whatever). You can swap out those books as often as you want. You can also hold onto those books as long as you want. If they come back damaged or you lose them, they continue to count against your quota (possibly subject to a jubilee mechanism). At no point do you owe anyone anything. Also, the library is under no obligation to buy unbounded copies of any single book: they can have a hold system for popular new releases just like we do now. Only books the library can reasonably acquire more copies of (i.e., in print or public domain) are in this system; rare books maybe follow the current system or maybe aren't loanable. People who are heavy library users aren't affected by this, they can do what they've been doing. People who want to hold onto a book for years can do that too (and the library might decide to buy more copies), but they're no longer exhibiting bad behavior and there's no reason to disincentivize them.
- closeparen 7y agoReserving a book is less useful when even the happy-path wait time is unbounded.
- em-bee 7y agoit doesn't have to be funded by the state. you can just "buy" a book off the library. in fact, you could buy the book in a book shop, and the library becomes a swapping center. as long as you bring back books in good condition, and they are in the library catalogue. (the library may not want to take multiple copies of books that are unpopular) of course paying for books up front does affect low income families and users who need many books at once. another side effect of these models is that you can swap books with your friends. you get 10 books, and i get a different 10 books and we swap with each other until we are through all 20 books together, and then each of us brings any 10 books back.
- Moru 7y agoPublic bookshelf is something that starts to pop up here and there. They are sometimes outdoors, accessible at any time or at the entrance of supermarkets. You take a book that looks interesting, read it and return later. Or just swap with some other book you own. Sometimes there are someone that takes care of the shelf, swapping content from other shelves further away. I often find interesting stuff in our local ones.