I can speak from a customer perspective. For the last 3 years, whilst working
for The Reading Agency, I have had to pay fines as an ordinary punter at my
local library. On many occasions now I have had to pay fines because, like
most people, I have a life - loads of things to get done in the course of a
day. Remembering to get my books back on time is not always top of my
priorities.
On the last occasion, I had £15 to pay in fines. It made me feel punished,
quite embarrassed to approach library staff and actually quite angry that I
was 'wasting' £15. Of course, I've never really felt this before because I've
had many years as a librarian where I've been able to waive my own fines
(quite legitimitely, I should add).
Faced with such an experience, it's no wonder that an increasing number of
people vote with their feet and choose to buy their books. The experience is
even worse for families - one of my neighbours has 3 children; on their second
time of borrowing from the library they ratcheted up about £30 in fines and
have never been back (either with fines or books).
Ciara Eastell
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