Posted on 03/06/2017 8:32:20 PM PST by nickcarraway
In 1906, a reporter for the Detroit Free Press described a scene that had become all too common at the city’s public libraries. A child hands an overdue book to a stern librarian perched behind a desk, and with a “sinister expression,” the librarian demands payment of a late fine. In some cases, the child grumbles and pays the penny or two. But in others—often at the city’s smaller, poorer library branches—the offender cannot pay, and his borrowing privileges are revoked. “Scarcely a day passes but it does not leave its record of tears and sighs and vain regrets in little hearts,” the reporter lamented.
More than a century later, similar dramas are still enacted in libraries across the country every day. In some districts, up to 35 percent of patrons have had their borrowing privileges revoked because of unpaid fines. Only these days, it’s librarians themselves who often lament what the Detroit reporter called “a tragedy enacted in this little court of equity.” Now some libraries are deciding that the money isn’t worth the hassle—not only that, but that fining patrons works against everything that public libraries ought to stand for.
Library fines in most places remain quaintly low, sometimes just 10 cents per day. But one user’s nominal is another’s exorbitant. If a child checks out 10 picture books, the kind of haul librarians love to encourage, and then his mother’s work schedule prevents her from returning them for a week past the due date, that’s $7. For middle-class patrons, that may feel like a slap on the wrist, or even a feel-good donation. For low-income users, however, it can be a prohibitively expensive penalty. With unpredictable costs hovering over each checkout, too many families decide it’s safer not to use the library at all. As one California
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
What!?
No more need of Mr. Bookman?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9tP9fI2zbE
Library?
The internet, Wikipedia, search engines, online books you can download in a minute or less.
I haven’t been in a library in years.
I hope they keep the EARLY return Jine
I gave up checking out items from my city library when they stopped waving the fines I incurred everytime their staff would shelve items without checking them back in. It would come to light whenever the next patron checked out the book.
It even happened to me with multi-CD sets, they’d scan one and say I still had the other 2 or 3 in the box.
Their staff wouldn’t do THEIR job and I refused to pay for their mistakes.
So, without giving a hit to Slate, what’s their solution to people not returning a book?
Renew the loan by phone. My library permitted this. My problem was their staff didn't do their job properly an assessed me fines for their repeated error when I would turn items in.
Late fees are a great motivator for procrastinators like me. DVDs are $1/day. Returned two DVDs three days late and the $6 charge was enough to make me remember to bring all materials back on time! The worst part was that we never found the time to watch them.
My eleven year old requests and checks out stacks of books every week. Early in her card holder days she had late fees one time, I made her pay me back and she has been diligent about getting books returned ever since.
I got so sick of paying late fines, I just buy used books of new ones on sale. I love libraries and was going to make a donation to purchase new books, but after their last stunt, I invested the $500 in my own library.
That is jine with me.
They actually have Overdrive now which allows users to borrow audiobooks, Kindle books and Nook versions online for up to 3 weeks. I save at least $10 on Kindle books every time I borrow a Kindle version of a bestseller from my library.
So while some may feel they’re outdated, they really aren’t. Also lower income people still rely greatly on them.
yeah but that stuff doesn’t give the homeless people a place to hang out during the day
Oh BITE ME. Did anyone read the stories of the All Of A Kind Family? A family in the early 1900s living in a poor section of a Brooklyn with 5 little girls? Papa was a junk peddler. Every week, Mama walked them to the local library to each check out a book.
One of the stories is when the second oldest, Henny, an outgoing, easily distracted girl, lost her library book. When they went back to the library, all the girls were terrified. Henny’s face was streaked with tears. Their beloved “library lady” saw their sad faces and wanted to just pay the fine herself, but she knew that wasn’t the right thing to do. She gave them the amount they would have to pay, and told Henry she could pay it off every week with her daily allowance pennies. She would even let her continue to check out one book each week. The girls were so happy, and decided right away they would all save their daily pennies too to help her.
THAT IS CHARACTER. THAT IS LEARNING TO PAY FOR YOUR MISTAKES.
Our poor kids today don’t need pity. They need to learn hard work and responsibility. Keep your book safe. You have three weeks to return it, three weeks to even renew it on line.
Large local library here is very popular and very nice. A huge plus to the community. I don’t go much, but always enjoy it when I do.
And, yes, there should be fines. Someone else may want to read that book you are hoarding!
“yeah but that stuff doesn’t give the homeless people a place to hang out during the day”
You just reminded me of another reason I don’t patronize libraries.
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