Frances Hendrix
Martin House Farm, Hilltop Lane, Whittle le Woods,
Chorley, Lancs PR6 7QR, UK
tel: 01257 274 833. fax: 01257 266
488
email:
[log in to unmask]
Something that occured to me whilst reading
your e-mail about library fines. DVD rental companies such as Amazon and
Lovefilm do not charge fines, they simply don't send out another DVD
until the previous one has been returned and they seem to be
flourishing. They do, admittedly, charge monthly membership fees but
isn't this roughly equivalent to the Council Tax that everyone pays (whether
they are members of a local library or not). Maybe libraries need to think
more along these lines.
Also when I was a student at Sheffield
University (admittedly about 10 years ago now, things may have changed since)
an automatic block was put on your account if you had an overdue book and no
further borrowing was possible until it was returned or renewed. No fines were
charged. For most students the block was enough push for the book to be
returned and, as you say, there was no financial bad feeling between the
student and the library.
I look forward to hearing more on this,
sometimes thorny, issue.
Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2008 11:12:26 +0100
From:
[log in to unmask]
Subject: Liubrary Elf
To:
[log in to unmask]
A few people have emailed me off list about this
fines issue, and some additional thoughts of my own. I have put them
together.
Can I say that as it is August I suppose we are
all having a trip down memory lane, as this 'issue' ,(excuse the pun), has
been around since I first worked in a public library, some 40 plus
years ago. I disagreed with the practice then, and thought it was a worthless
task, that created ill will and probably didn't make a surplus over what all
the costs related to it added up to.Of course in those days there was no
automation and it was all down to pen,paper, ink, postage etc. And as I
mentioned before it was selective in some libraries
(disgraceful).
We are now more than mid way through 2008,
libraries have changed in many ways and there have been many
innovations, BUT book loans and users have not increased.Most public
libraries are NOT 'destinations of choice' and we live in a changing
world with lots of competition. What sane business person would carry on a
system which actually put customers off?
What has happened to the philosophy 'free at the
point of use', should this be amended to' free until you stray slightly over
the usually arbitrary date we have applied to get it back'?
some other comments made include:-
Just another follow up to this thread. Not only is it likely that
the vast majority would be returned anyway, but there is strong evidence that
many people, once they build up a hefty fine, are less likely to return the
items because they don't wish to pay (sometimes they even believe that the
fines will be so high [not maximum cutoff] that they just couldn't afford to
bring them back).
I actually kept track over two years of the level of loss
of stock for non returned overdue items. The cumulated value per
annum was ( for a pop of c160,000) about £20,000. It would be so
much better to forego the fines and get the books
back!
and
|
Basically I think the public response is the same as your opening
shot-- it's an old fashioned way of giving service and penalises the
people who can least afford it and most need the service. It
shouldn't be regarded as income generation from people who already pay a
lot in council tax. It's a negative arrangement -- and certainly
puts off those younger people whom we desperately need to attract.
Shouldn't the questions being asked
be:-
|
The first should be to ask the public how they feel about fines
etc in a proper piece of market research
The second is to discover how much is generated by the fine system-- and
how much it costs to operate. At the same time we need a proper estimate
of how much is lost through theft/ non returns.
There are quite a lot of library authorities in the US who no longer
operate fines. They could provide useful info, too.
f
Frances Hendrix
Martin House Farm, Hilltop
Lane, Whittle le Woods, Chorley, Lancs PR6 7QR, UK
tel: 01257 274
833. fax: 01257 266 488
email: [log in to unmask]
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