Fine Free-ish for Youth Materials

 

12-27-2024

In August the Library Board of Trustees voted to make three changes that will go into full effect January 1, 2025. The changes are to age of a card holder, hours, and fines.

The quick and easy news relates to hours and card holders. At the beginning of 2020 the library was open until 7:00 pm Monday through Friday. Post shutdown saw a limited opening with more hours added every so often. The last hold out was Monday night. That will be rectified in 2025. Starting Monday, January 6^th, we will be open until 7:00 pm four nights a week. The only night patrons need to remember as closing early is Friday. That has, to the best of my knowledge, always been the case. As for card holders, moving forward they will need to be at least 4 years old.

The more exciting and complicated change regards fines. Complicated in putting it into effect and complicated in understanding how if works. In the past all late materials were assessed a fine. Long standing library policy, fines were meant as incentive to return materials on time and make them available for other patrons in a timely fashion.

The reality of fines is much more complicated in many patron’s heads. Rather than return late materials to stop fines from growing, many patrons hold onto them until they are prepared to 1. Pay them immediately (this is only necessary if the patron’s total fines have reached $10.00 and the patron wishes to check out materials that day) or 2. They are no longer afraid to face the mad librarians (we have a lot more going on in our lives to be mad about a patron having to pay a fine). The reality was that 80% of the existing patron fines were assessed on patrons who haven’t entered our building in over three years. This does not meet our goals of being a welcoming part of the community and supporting literacy development.

The Fines and Fees section of our Circulation Policy now reads, “It is not the ETLPL’s intent to create barriers to a child’s literacy development; therefore, fines will not be assessed on youth material owned by ETLPL.” Unpacking that statement is the complication. Important points are fines, youth material, and owned by.

Fines and Fees are two separate charges. The first related to returning an item after its due date. The second relates to damage and returning it at all. If a dog eats youth material, there will be a charge. If youth material is not returned within 3 months, the item will be assumed lost and there will be a replacement charge. Damage cannot be repaired, but assumed lost materials can be returned thereby removing the replacement fee.

Youth materials references the movies and books (print and audio) meant for the underage. Other material primarily meant for use by the underage such as our Library of Things items can only be checked out by adult patrons and do not qualify as fine free youth materials.

Finally, owned by ETLPL is a disclaimer regarding items brought in by other library’s so that we do not violate their policies. That said, a large number of the 22 libraries in Prairie Lakes Library System and Kenosha County with whom we share items on a daily basis, are already fine free for youth materials.

In order for this to go into on January 1^st, the IT Department and our catalogers have been working to make certain items are properly cataloged and they became fine free six weeks ago. This should allow for a smooth transition and avoid late fines on renewed materials checked out in November but returned late. It does not affect existing fines.

Reading Now: Life by Pope Francis

Listening to Now: Wicked by Gregory Maguire