CHAPEL HILL -- The next time Chapel Hill readers want to reserve the latest John Grisham novel, they may be able to do it for free.

The Chapel Hill Public Library has been charging a $1 fee for reserving adult books and other materials, 25 cents for juvenile and young adult titles.

Now, to be fairer to all town residents, the library's board of trustees is asking the Chapel Hill Town Council to eliminate the fee.

The Friends of the Chapel Hill Public Library asked the trustees to recommend ending the fee. The group said eliminating the fee would make library materials more accessible and consistent with other area libraries that do not charge reservation fees.

Eliminating the fee also would be "a wonderful way to celebrate and publicize" the library's 50th anniversary, the Friends wrote in an e-mail to the trustees.

The Chapel Hill Public Library, a municipal library, is not part of the county library system but allows all Orange County residents to use its resources.

The other libraries in Orange County -- the Carrboro Cybrary, Carrboro Branch Library, Cedar Grove Branch Library and Orange County Public Library -- belong to the Hyconeechee Regional Library System.

Lee Mayfield, vice president of the Friends, has lived in upstate New York, Washington, D.C., and outside Boston -- where no library charged to reserve, she said. Mayfield, who pitched the idea to the Friends, also called the Wake, Durham and Chatham counties' library systems, and learned that they don't have reservation fees.

In an interview, Mayfield said some people can't afford to put a $1 hold on books.

"And if you are an avid reader, the $1 quickly becomes $20, and then $30 and $40 and $50," she said. "In my circle of reading friends, I found I wasn't alone in my concern."

Mark Bayles, assistant director of Chapel Hill library, said the books in highest demand are on the New York Times Best Sellers and Oprah's Book Club lists. Also, popular authors like Grisham tend to have 20 to 30 people lining up when a new title comes out, more than the number of copies the library can buy.

The library can purchase up to 20 copies of an individual title, Bayles said. Then, the Friends tends to bring in extra copies, which would be the nonreservable copies -- "to let people have that serendipitous experience of finding the book on the shelf."

About 12,000 holds, or reserves, are put on materials every year, Bayles said. He said the library brings in between $115,000 to $130,000 or $140,000 a year through fees -- reserve fees, overdue fees, out-of-county patrons' fees and loss or damage fees. Of that amount, about $10,000 a year is reserve fees, making up about 0.5 percent of the library's $2 million budget.

The library also gets money from the town, the county, gifts and donations through the Friends and the Chapel Hill Public Library Foundation, individual gifts, less than $50,000 a year from state revenues, and grants from time to time, Bayles said.

In the e-mail to the town detailing the trustees' support of the request, trustees Chairwoman Martha Diefendorf wrote that eliminating the fee would "increase patron satisfaction and affirm the library's commitment to serving the community."