A fine way to end age-old library policy

CELINA - At the Mercer County District Library, overdue fines will go the way of wooden card catalogs, checkout stamps and typewriters.

Beginning April 11, the start of National Library Week, the library will no longer charge overdue fines for items checked out at the main library and its three branches. The policy will be retroactive, meaning fines dating before April 11 for materials that have been returned will be waived.

"We are going fine free. It's something that I've thought about for a couple of years," library director Elizabeth Muether said. "With national library week, traditionally we do not charge fines during that week so we thought that would be a good time to make the switch."

Patrons are charged a penny a day for overdue books and a dollar a day for DVDs.
  "It took us a while to figure out the logistics of how this would work, because the first question anyone asks is, 'how are you going to get your stuff back?' " Muether said.

The library will change the time frame of when an item goes from being marked overdue to lost. Instead of 45 days, it would likely be around 30. Patrons would then be billed for the missing item and would not be able to check out more books until the missing one was either paid for or returned. Additionally, too many overdue items would prevent a patron from checking out new materials.

"The main goal here is simple. We just want our stuff back and we want people to enjoy it for however long they need, within reason," Muether said.

Muether and circulation manager Jay Miley said they have several motivations to stop charging fines.

The negative association people have with library fines is one of the main reasons the library will abolish the practice, Muether said. She hopes removing the fines removes the apprehension some patrons may have about returning late material.

"Today's libraries are all about breaking stereotypes," she said. "We are a community hub, a place for people to come in and explore. We don't want people to have any negative stereotypes associated with their library."

The penny a day fine was not an entirely effective way of motivating patrons to return materials anyway, they said, and the money generated from fines was not a significant portion of the library's revenues.

"The amount of money we were taking in was quite minimal," Muether said.

Fines were estimated to bring in less than $4,000 yearly. To put that into perspective, the library system has a $1 million annual operating budget.

"I think just the stigma of overdue fines was more effective than the amount," Muether said. "Honestly, if you grabbed 10 library patrons, told them their book was 10 days overdue and asked them how much they thought they owed, not one of them would say 10 cents. All of them would probably guess much higher."

The Mercer County District Library is the first in the area to implement a fine-free policy, but other libraries in the state already have made the switch, Miley said. When researching the practice, he found that libraries with fine-free policies saw an increase in circulation and returned materials.

"Just yesterday I had someone bring back lost books, lay them on the desk and run out. And I don't want that. It should be drop it off and get more stuff," he said.

Muether also sees getting rid of fines as a way to thank the community for its support.

"One reason we wanted to pursue this was because of how supportive the community has been of this library over the years," she said. "Not just with our levies but with donations and community support. Our library is so community-driven we were trying to think of a way to give back to them."

National Library Week is April 11-16. The theme is "Libraries Transform." In addition to kicking off the fine-free policy, the library will give away a Kindle Fire. To enter the drawing, participants must write a statement about how a library transformed their lives.