Currently, one can reserve a book (at no cost) at a public library and would be contacted when it's available. For more popular books, like best-sellers, you might be waiting months for one of the copies that the library has. As a means to generate revenues for the public library, why not have the ability to pay an amount (say $1 - $5) to reserve other copies of the book. For example, if a library has 6 copies of the #1 Bestseller, you could wait however long it takes for a copy at no-cost, or pay for one of the priority copies (which the market would ensure has a shorter wait). So, while you might have to wait 3 months at no cost, for $1 maybe the wait would only be one month and for $5 there might not be any wait, The library wins because it is generating revenues and the public wins because they have the option of getting the book sooner at a cost or waiting patiently for the "free" reserve copy to become available.
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I like the general idea-- since the library has already recognized a shortage of a resource and has implemented a rationing system, it may as well generate some revenue and distribute the resource to those who really want it.
However, I have a feeling that implementation could be difficult. Would the paying and non-paying patrons be in the same queue, or would there be separate queues for each class?
It seems that separate queues would be useful so that non-paying patrons know where they stand, rather than being constantly bumped to a worse position by paying patrons who are given higher priority.
On the other hand, separate queues have their own problems, especially if we have a small number of books. Some readers will finish the book quicker than others, so it is possible that the non-paying queue will advance quicker than the paying queue at times and a person would be worse off in the paying queue. There will also be some number of patrons who never pick up the book when it is available for them. I expect more of these patrons to be in the non-paying queue, so that's another reason that the non-paying queue may move faster.
An alternative is to place the paying patrons in both queues, and only charge the person if he reaches the front of the paying queue before he reaches the front of the non-paying queue.
Books could either be dedicated to one or the other queue, or the library could alternate between calling from each queue whenever a book becomes available.
...this reminds me, I have a book on reserve that I should go pick up...