The Bartholomew County Public Library is relaxing its overdue fines policy for most borrowers while keeping penalties for major offenders.
Fines are being eliminated effective June 15 in an effort to attract more community residents to the library and its services, library officials said.
Library director Jason Hatton said he has been considering implementing the no-fine policy for several years.
Last fall, Hatton asked a staff committee to look into the possibility and spoke to other Indiana library directors that use a fine-free system to determine whether the approach would a good fit for Bartholomew County.
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The committee looking into the policy included David Miller, Hope library branch supervisor.
Several other libraries use a similar model, he said.
Until this point, borrowers with library cards have been allowed to keep books for three weeks at a time — with one free three-week renewal. Fines are 10 cents a day after that, up to a maximum of $5.
Entertainment DVDs and videos can be rented for a maximum of one week, with a $1-per-day fine and $5 maximum.
Overdue fines are meant to encourage patrons to return items on time, but more often serve to deter people from returning late items or revisiting the library, Hatton said.
The loss of patrons far outweighed the loss of revenue that will result from changing policies, he said. Estimates show that the library will lose less than 1 percent of its funding by eliminating late fines.
“We want patrons to have a more pleasant experience rather than thinking we’re trying to nickel-and-dime them,” Hatton said.
The new policy doesn’t eliminate all consequences for items that are lost or damaged, however.
Notices for overdue items will still be sent out, and damaged items must be paid for by the responsible patron.
For items more than 45 days overdue, the library will charge a $10 fee through a collections agency.
Additionally, items more than three weeks past their due date will be automatically marked as lost, and patrons will not be able to check out new items if they have not paid for lost ones on their account.
The purpose of retaining those policies is to make sure that items are still being returned to the library for other community members to use, Hatton said, without punishing patrons who simply struggle to meet the regular due date.
Angela Eck, assistant director of the library, said she is happy to have a new system that is more flexible for patrons, especially children, that often accrue fines unknowingly and lose their library privileges.
She also hopes that more former patrons will return to the library with the new system.
Fines have already been wiped from accounts, Eck said, but other system changes such as adjusted due dates and notice systems are still being altered. All changes will be completed by the new policy’s official rollout date of June 15.
“I want to see people come to the library who haven’t used it or stopped using it,” Hatton said. “I want people to realize that we’re here to help them and provide them with the resources to make their lives better.”
