Dumn.

If you want the services you must pay the taxes. Champaign residents pay the taxes, so they get the services. If others want the services, they pay the taxes too.
 
If Katie lived in Champaign she might not have to drive every day. That would save a lot of money, not to mention the planet.
 
The Tolono Library web page links to the Lincoln Trails portal. If you want an inter-library loan, find your materials online and “request any copy.” The item(s) will be shipped to your home library, same as your tax dollars.
 
(I’ve emailed the Tolono staff to confirm the accuracy and applicability of the above statement.)
 
To save time (and therefore additional tax dollars) use the email notification, rather than phone number, as your preferred method of contact. When your materials arrive, you’ll be notified.
 
There’s one member library (Gifford?) which allows materials only ONE day on the shelf (waiting for you to pick them up) before they have to be returned to their library of origin. But otherwise, you’ll have plenty of time to make the trip.

Tolono Library staff Janet Cler & Trish Althaus have responded to confirm that Tolono works just like any of the 125 Lincoln Trails libraries.
 
Here’s the catalog.
 

I think this is a good decision.  I’m not sure why anyone would be surprised or think it’s unfair that the Champaign Public Library would focus on serving the people of Champaign. 

Katie, have the residents of Savoy and Tolono thought about having their taxes raised a little to help their public library expand? That’s a possibility for them. And then everybody wins.

What is the increased marginal cost of serving a resident of Savoy or Mahomet? I suspect negligible. What is the increased revenue to be realized by this new policy? I suspect very little. Aside from these financial aspects, what are the most probable results from this new policy? A decrease in library use (and all the benefits that flow therefrom) by Champaign County residents and an increase in antipathy towards an institution that needs the full an enthusiastic support of voters and taxpayers in these economically trying times.
 
I suspect (though I do not know, I am speculating) that a better solution could have been reached. This seems like a short-sighted shortcut to fix a structural problem with library funding that carries with it too many negatives.

The equation is pretty simple here. If you want social services, then pay the taxes required to run those social services. These things only work if everyone puts in their fair share.

As a heavy user of the Champaign Library, I say bravo to this new policy.

And, I might add, no one is being prevented from using the Champaign library. They are just being asked to pay their fair share if they are going to use it as their primary library.

I read Timbo’s argument. I think the key word is “speculating.”

(speaking as a Savoy resident)  By paying taxes to support a member of the LTLS, we are paying our “fair share” to use any LTLS library—Tolono, Champaign, Urbana, etc.  This is how library systems work.  The 6% of CPL’s circulation represented by Tolono users is NOT significant enough to impact Champaign residents’ use of the library.  
Not all libraries can (or should) be as large or complete as CPL.  Again… that’s WHY we have library systems with reciprocal agreements.  The rules that allow CPL to refuse reciprocal borrowing were just changed in July.  If I knew that this were to be an issue, I might have tried to use the equally-inconvenient Tolono library more.

I’ve never gotten the privilege of all the services CPL cardholders get.  I just want to be able to go out of my way to drive to the CPL to check out books, pay fines, maybe buy some coffee, and enjoy the library.  None of those activities will prevent a CPL cardholder from getting 100% of the value of their tax dollar, nor am I creating any noticeable additional cost for the library.
 
I could, on the other hand, have everything I want sent through the ILL system from Champaign to Tolono, at a real price to both libraries in delivery and labor costs.

Jason, Savoy could easily join the CPL tax district, which is probably closer to most Savoy residents than the Tolono library is.  But my impression is that Savoy residents as a whole don’t want to pay the cost of the CPL (Tolono’s library taxes are cheaper), even though many want to enjoy the full benefits of the CPL. How is that not a back-door way for Savoy to not paying its fair share of its primary library (which based on the data is CPL, not Tolono)?

When you take library size into account, people are using Tolono quite extensively.  For each book that Tolono carries, they check out 3.5 books, meaning that their collection is pretty heavily utilized.  For each book that CPL carries, Tolono residents check out .44 books, which seems like a much fairer comparison than total circulation numbers.  People ARE using the Tolono library, it just isn’t big enough to meet everyone’s needs (and it shouldn’t need to grow).

We aren’t really talking about Tolono here, but Savoy, which joined the Tolono system in order to pay $60/year (Tolono’s rate) instead of $200/year (CPL’s rate) per homeowner (on average). I believe this was done quite intentionally to pay lower taxes, knowing they would then have full access to the more conveniently located and more extensive CPL.

The spirit of inter-library loan is to be able to get materials from other libraries that are not available at your own library.  It isn’t to join the system to avoid paying the full cost of your primary library. 

As for the data, if Savoy/Tolono residents are checking out half a book for each book that exists at CPL, that seems incredibly high to me for what is supposed to be an inter-library loan system.

But the extent to which Savoy/Mahomet residents are a drag on CPL seems besides the point to me.  It seems that Savoy/Mahomet residents using CPL as their primary library is restraining the growth of their own libraries. If they paid more into their own districts and pulled more of their own weight, there would be more inter-library loan materials available for everyone. That, or Savoy could join the CPL tax district, and the CPL would be even better than it is now.

Dan -
You need to remember LTLS is designed as MORE than just an ILL system, it’s got a reciprocal borrowing agreement, like how you can drive in other states with your Illinois license.  If you want to travel to another library in your system, you’re free to use it.  Isn’t that nice?
Perhaps if we knew earlier that there could be consequences, Tolono users could have lobbied to join CPL or use Tolono more to avoid the chance of what is now happening.  This rule was changed just over a month ago, and now there’s only a couple months before we get cut off (with no notice of if/when we might regain access).  They changed the rule, then used the previous year’s usage to justify cutting off access which seems a little hasty.

At what point did the LTLS eliminate user fees for patrons visiting libraries other than their own local?
 
I remember paying a fee at Champaign when I was a tiny tot. I also remember being surprised when Noah & Adriel Elanor came over for dinner and he offered to drop off our items when he returned his—on the way home.  
 
“You can do that?!?!?” I trilled.
 
It can’t be too efficient for the system, but yes he assured me, patrons can return items from one library to a different library.
 
The point: whatever’s being taken away is not freedom of speech. It’s not your right to choose. It’s your “right” to piggyback the taxpayers of Champaign. And it’s a fairly recent right.
 
There’s a reason the CPL employees are overworked. And now they’re looking to stop it.

You mean, once they’ve paid $140 worth of nickels and dimes in one calendar year the CPL issues them a waiver?
 
I’ll bet you’d get little argument from the CPL.