Dear Ursula,
Thanks for this. I'd be very interested in a breakdown between NHS and
University Libraries and their charging policies. Is this possible?
Universities are much larger institutions, and often have very different
agendas when it comes to setting Library policies. In the NHS, Libraries
tend to have far more autonomy, and so can take decisions more with the
user in mind.
I also wonder what rationale was given for charging fines, by those who do
- and is there any evidence to support their reasons? Has anyone done any
research on this recently?
Regards,
Jim
Jim Moore, Librarian,
Goldberg Library, King George Hospital,
Barley Lane, GOODMAYES, Essex. IG3 8YB
Tel: (020) 8970 8239
Fax: (020) 8970 8237
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: Ison Ursula (RQ3) BCH [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2001 10:19 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Fines for Overdue books
Good morning to you all
First of all I want to thank all who replied to my request for information
and thoughts on fining for overdue books - as always it is good to be part
of such a supportive network.
Summary of responses.
37 replies
26 charged fines
8 gave reasons for not fining
3 were thinking about introducing fines.
The ranges of fines charged were:
5p-40p/day for standard loans with 10p/book/day being the most popular
20p-60p/day for short term loans
60p-?1.00/hour for reserve collections
?1.00/day for overnight loans
Universities seem to charge the higher fines. The usual "punishment" for
non-payment is the withdrawal of borrowing rights but few reported any
problems of this sort. Universities have the ultimate sanction of not
awarding degrees if a user still owes money to the university. Most said
the
users accepted fines as normal practice for a library,
The reasons for not fining included worries about increased administration,
not wanting to discourage borrowing and not wanting to appears as
bureaucratic librarians. All sent out repeated overdue reminder letters.
The decision we have taken here is to start fining 10p/book/day for
standard
loans and 20p/book/day for short tern loans. We have also decreased the
length of the standard loan for 4 weeks to 2 but increased the number of
renewals allowed from 1 to 2. Renewals can be made by phone. We have
allowed
6 weeks to try to let everybody know about the new system - newsletters,
notices in the library and telling everybody who borrows or returns a book.
I have also designed a user loans policy handout to be given to users as
they register and a registration form that they have to sign indicating
that
they know about the fines and agree to pay any incurred. We are also
getting
users who are already registered to complete one for the new forms. The
form
also contains a statement saying that they agree to their details being
stored on the computer and that the information is confidential to comply
with data protection law. So far we have not had any negative responses
from
anyone we have told - just surprise that we don't already charge.
Hope this proves helpful to anyone else who is also thinking about charging
fines.
Regards
Ursula Ison
Trust Librarian
Birmingham Children's Hospital.
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