YAWN . . . AP story about long overdue library book
At least once a year, one of these stories appears in the news. These stories are both annoying and uninteresting to me.
First of all, the late fine, if charged, most likely would not be $685. Most libraries have a standard maximum fine (eg. the replacement cost of the book plus processing fees). Otherwise, most people would have little incentive to return late books.
Second, in these cases, libraries almost always waive the fines. This is not news. Charging the fine, especially a $685 fine to a descendant of the original borrower, would be news. And bad PR for the library. I think stating this, as if it were unusual, perpetuates the idea of the librarian as a generally unsympathetic bureaucrat who usually enjoys fining library users.
Most libraries do not rely on fines as a source of income, and few public services librarians that I know relish fining people. The point of fines and other penalties such as blocks on borrowing privileges is to keep books in circulation by discouraging users from developing a habit of returning items late.
Before I started working with rare books, I worked in circulation, and I was always happy to have long overdue books and “lost” books returned to the library. Often these items arrived mysteriously in the outdoor dropbox or were sent anonymously by mail. Sometimes a friend or loved one of the original borrower brought the items to the library, explaining how they found the book or, more often, books while cleaning out things after the person died.
The stories behind the overdue books are interesting. Stories about the library responding to overdue books are not.
I agree with Jessamyn West; there are more important stories involving librarians that need to be discussed in the general media.
Add comment May 8th, 2003