How is the funding handled for free museum passes from library?

That’s a great question. We don’t have that here but a friend in Philly does. I’ll ask here when I talk to her. I suspect the museums just give a certain number gratis to the libraries.

I was a member of one museum that was part of this group.

https://narmassociation.org/

Don’t know how money is shared.

It doesn’t cost much of anything to let a person enter a museum. Just saying.

I don’t know if this is how it works out, but I wonder how many people add a donation, eat at the museum restaurant, or buy something at the museum store when they go to the museum? Maybe it increases their revenue slightly to let people in for free?

If it is a local government run museum, then if you shop or eat in that county while there they get the tax revenue.

It’s probably a plan to incentivize people to get library cards.

@Blackwater_Park i think most of the peole who go to museums have library cards already.

@LostInParadise Without talking to my friend, I’m sure the museums give them gratis to patrons. The way it works in her library at least is that the library has only a few passes per museum and you can sign them out for a day or two. So it’s not like the library gives out unlimited free passes and this helps patronage for the museums as well.

Well libraries are part of our Socialist (gasp) structure, like the police and schools, etc. So it’s part of the budget they submit to the government.

(OMG what? Something happens without it being a financial transaction?!?! /s)

@janbb Young people largely do not.

Our library does this. They have passes to museums, aquariums and local gardens. When you look at admission prices for some of these places, it can be more than 25 dollars per person. For a family of two parents to go, or a parent and a grandparent or two, plus kids, it can be 100 dollars. That’s out of reach financially for some.

Like @janbb said, it brings business to the museums in the form of gift shop and cafe purchases.

^^That was me. :)

The service here is called “Discover & Go”. It is a partnership between local libraries and museums that have enrolled in the program. Libraries pay for access to the service.

i think most of the peole who go to museums have library cards already.

But some do not. Far be it from me to dispute this with a librarian, but heck, life is short. YOLO!

I think that museum tickets are just one part of the mix that attract families to the library. Different groups are drawn with different bait, and once hooked they may find all the other offerings.

I use the library mostly for books and DVDs and online services. But I see how they offer a huge range of services including safe after-school space for kids, museum tickets, document scanners, 3D printers, English language learning for immigrants and more and more.

The quality and breadth and importance of my local library services continually astound me.

@Call_Me_Jay and @Blackwater_Park You are both right. All of the different offerings of ttoday’s public libraries help to bring in more people and museum passes are one incentive.