Comments on: It’s not all fine: Trafford remove all late fees from 1st April

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 14 Feb 2018 09:00:40 +0000

It may be harsh to pick on the good experience of the last comment, but surely the success of a fine amnesty is in returning readers to the library, not the value of the books returned? Dismissing it as resulting in out of date books, seems to place more importance on the stock than actually having users.

And then to follow up with the assumption Trafford will lose stock because “Librarians know that when people have many overdue books, they just never come back to the library”. That’s what they’re trying to stop. We don’t have to accept that as soon as people go overdue with some books they just never come back. They don’t currently come back, but that’s cos they have loads of money to pay.

I can easily imagine that with no fines, more items will go overdue on average. But also that more will be returned overall. And there will be more active borrowers than there would have been. That seems to be something worth doing.

In terms of making sure taxpayers money is not wasted, library usage is much lower than it should be and the whole community doesn’t seem to be served. There will be many reasons for that, but removing barriers and obvious reasons for why people stop using libraries seems sensible. Not just protecting the service for a small number of ‘good’ users, and the ones who don’t particularly mind fines.

By: Ralph lloyd-Jones

Ralph lloyd-Jones — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 10:34:12 +0000

It long ago occurred to me that library fines are only brought into the equation because people always take money seriously and the possibility of having to pay (for misusing an otherwise free service) will help ensure that books come back. Every library I have ever worked in that gave a fines amnesty got dozens of horrible out-of-date books back, mostly long since written off, which we just threw away. Trafford will now lose a lot of stock because all Librarians know that when people have many overdue books, they just never come back to the library (deliberate thief or not). All librarians will also have waived many fines when the reader gave a reasonable excuse for books being late back. We’re not trying to raise revenue with overdue fines, just making sure the taxpayers’ money spent on library books won’t be wasted!

By: librariesmatter

librariesmatter — Sun, 11 Feb 2018 20:12:12 +0000

Re fines – An alternative approach is to help users avoid fines by reminding them that the return date for a book is coming up soon.

I’m surprised that only around 10% of UK Library Authorities subscribe to the ‘Library ELF’ software. Elf is a web-based tool that enables users to keep track of their library borrowings. The user signs up to ELF and sets their personal reminder timing – say 3 days before the return date. Reminder emails are then sent 3 days before an item is due for return.

I use Library ELF it for my library books and renew online if necessary. It works a treat.