Comments on: The Library Reloaded: Fines

By: Are Fines Fine? | Musings & Miscellany

Are Fines Fine? | Musings & Miscellany — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 16:50:15 +0000

[...] and also found the comments on this post to be quite enlightening. However, most useful was this blog post from The Library Reloaded. In it, Andy writes about alternatives to library fines, including [...]

By: Library Reloaded: The Catalog « Agnostic, Maybe

Library Reloaded: The Catalog « Agnostic, Maybe — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 04:06:42 +0000

[...] the Library Reloaded series, there has been discussion about what materials make up a collection, different ways to approach fines, and alternate forms of library cards. Unlike those previous posts, in writing and thinking about [...]

By: Lesley

Lesley — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 19:00:17 +0000

Great discussion! We went to a no-fines model in 2007 and it has worked well in some regards. We no longer spend staff time & energy arguing with the same people about the $0.30 they owe because they didn’t get the book back on time (which, of course, is the answer to the woman who wants to know why she has to pay fines on top of her taxes… you never have to pay a fine if you just return your items on time). We still have to put staff time into getting items back though — without fines there are people who just don’t think about returning items, whether there are others waiting or not, so we make phone calls and send letters to chase things down.

I love the “point system” idea — always feels nicer to reward/encourage good behavior than to punish. It’s hard to imagine the logistics of logging early returns at check-in though. I’d love to hear more about how that works.

Mostly, I wanted to comment on the “loss of revenues” argument. That came up when we were deciding whether to stop charging fines. Since the idea of fines is as a deterrent (there to give people the incentive to return things on time), theoretically if everyone follows the rules then your revenue from fines would be $0 anyway. If the library needs a money maker then I think we should create one – either a fundraising campaign, or a library store, or whatever. It’s like state governments raising taxes on cigarettes and justifying it by saying that they are trying to reduce smoking & the health effects of smoking… when we really know they are using it to make up for other shortfalls.

By: Zeds Library News « the zeds : library science

Zeds Library News « the zeds : library science — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 13:04:21 +0000

[...] Andy Woodworth, our favourite librarian/social-media-expert, looks at the “Whither Library Fin… argument and shows us why 25 cents or a dollar a day doesn’t have to be the only answer. Since fines can by a “barrier to access”, libraries can consider volunteerism, food-for-fines, or placing just a simple hold on the patron’s account until the items are returned. [...]

By: Reading and Writing Day: Library Day in the Life (Day 4) « Speaking of Information

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 02:05:08 +0000

[...] one blog post after another. One, in particular, that stimulated some thoughtful reflection was a post about library fines by Andy Woodworth [...]

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:48:03 +0000

I hate the whole nickel and dime aspect of fines. I think having to tell someone at the circulation desk that they owe us a petty amount of money because they returned a few things a few days late diminishes us. It taints the positive interaction we are working hard to have. That said, I think it works for us (at least at MPOW) politically to charge fines. It means we have some sort of revenue coming in. To destroy that in these tough economic times would not sit well with the politicians who approve our budget each year.
I would like to try a model where people could pre-pay say $20 for fines/fees, and the amount would just be deducted. It would be great if they could use this fund for printouts, too. We could just let people know when their amount is running low. I think this would do wonders to improve our public image. But I’ll bet our Accounting department would hate it!

By: CarynW

CarynW — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 04:07:50 +0000

I like most of these ideas. I think each would work for different types of libraries. I work for a government library, and we use method #1, letting them keep it until someone else needs it. Since people most often look for books via the catalog, it works well.

I love the “reading it off” idea, especially for school libraries. I’d have taken to that like a duck to water!

“Pay what you want” seems to me to have real potential for public libraries, provided the income from the system is pooled for the system as a whole (as opposed to branch-by-branch).

Back in 1990, I was an elementary school librarian. No one had ever allowed the kindergarteners to check out books, but I let them have one at a time, keeping them at school for the first semester, and allowing them to take them home second semester. We had a fine system (five cents/day, I think), but what really brought the kindergarteners’ books back was peer pressure! When someone kept a book late, the kids who were waiting to read it directed such disapproval at the offender that it was generally returned the next day. Now, if we could just figure out how to transfer this to other libraries….

Caryn Wesner-Early

By: Heather Booth

Heather Booth — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 03:41:26 +0000

This is timely. Just today a patron came in, waving her tax bill around and pointing out how much she spends on the library every year, and in light of that, why should she have to pay her $1.10 fine?! While she was pretty rude about the whole thing, I couldn’t help but think that she kinda had a point. At the same time, these are books that are in demand (she wanted them – who’s to say someone else might not want them too), that the library purchased for the community at large. I really am intrigued by the points/credit idea. I’d also like to see longer checkout periods for items that aren’t new. If you can renew a three-week book twice, why don’t we just check it out for nine weeks to begin with? I think I remember hearing about a library that asked people how long they needed the book and checked out for that time period. Fast readers might opt for a week, while others might need a book for several months. Interesting ideas.

By: Liz B

Liz B — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 01:26:05 +0000

True story: I had someone who on their own “fixed” the ABC order for a section of the library.

You guessed it…it was a Dewey area of nonfiction, and the entire thing had to be redone.

By: Nicolette

Nicolette — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 00:17:24 +0000

Community service is a two-edged sword. We get tons of community service in our library, because it is required for the high schools, required for National Honor Society, and an option instead of paying fines for things like DWI, being a minor in possession, and too many parking tickets.

Some are tickled to be working in a library instead of paying hundreds of dollars or picking up trash from the road. They work their butts off, do great work, and even come back after they have done their time to work in the library. They make us hunger for more volunteers every day!

Others do things like show up unannounced demanding to work a few hours off their obligation because “today is good for my schedule”. Does not seem to matter that there is nothing fitting their capabilities to do right now–their service is due soon, or they are going on a trip, or whatever, so the librarian gets to either stop what she is doing to try to make work for them, or stand there while they continue to block the desk arguing that work needs to be produced for them now (our volunteer coordinator spends a lot of time offsite, so she may not be around). The number of seemingly educated people who need to sing the ABC song in order to shelve fiction books correctly is quite high, and getting them pay attention to the numbers after Dewey’s decimal can be challenging. They make us think Save Us from More Volunteers.