Hear, hear.

What everyone is failing to note is that fines are completely avoidable. Nobody need pay them if they return or renew their loans, and with the ever increasing means of carrying out renewals in most authorities, including online and 24hour automatic phone renewals, there is no excuse. Where a valid reason is made, (illness, bereavement etc., then most libraries have a waiver policy and act accordingly)

 

 

This topic was aired a while ago on PLUS General. Someone posted the following, which I hung onto for some reason (how sad is that?!):

“Not strictly answering your questions, but we introduced fines in 2001. The result was that more of our books were returned, and our issue figures went up. We concluded that this was because people preferred to either return or renew the books rather than pay fines”.

Wearing my customer services hat, I agree that fines are not exactly the most user-friendly inducement to join a library, and people do have the misconception that they go on mounting up indefinitely, fuelled no doubt by media reports of books returned 100 years late with correspondingly whopping fines waived. But I’m also aware that we are driven by government targets to increase issues, and if the above experience is valid, removing fines could result in a drop in issues.

Re turkeys and Christmas, you might be surprised. I deal with all the formal complaints that we receive in Devon, and we’ve only had 2 such complaints since 2005 about fines. Complaints about charges for media hire, or public access computers, or reservations, or photocopying, yes, but fines – no! This may not reflect what is said over the counter, but if people feel really strongly, they will lodge a formal complaint. Radio Devon this morning was talking about plans to introduce parking charges on Dartmoor, and they did the usual trawl of public opinion. Somewhat to my surprise, most people said fair enough, because they were happy to contribute to maintaining something they valued. Of course we shouldn’t need to rely on fines, but first we need a government that isn’t statistics driven, and then we need one that will fund councils adequately for the ever-increasing range of services that they are required to provide.

Sue Pargeter

Standards and Customer Projects Manager

Devon County Council

Devon Library and Information Services

Devon Libraries Headquarters, Great Moor House, Bittern Road, Sowton, Exeter, EX2 7NL

Tel: 01392 384310

Email: [log in to unmask]

Website: www.devon.gov.uk/libraries

Disclaimer: www.devon.gov.uk/email.shtml

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