Library to ditch fines
Rotorua Library is going fines-free for late returns from July this year.
International evidence has proven that going fines-free increases membership and allows greater participation in accessing resources, especially for those in lower socio-economic groups, Rotorua Library Director Laura Marshall told the Operations & Monitoring Committee today.
She said fines created a barrier for those who most needed the types of services offered by libraries and were out of touch with customer-focused strategies to increase use, trust, connection and wellbeing.
While fines were originally introduced to encourage members to return books but over time became seen as a revenue stream, which was not the original intent.
Currently fines were accrued once a book became overdue and once fines reached $15 people were blocked from using services. There were more than 800 people blocked at any given time, the Committee was told.
Forty per cent of all debt went unpaid and was written off and enforcement took up considerable staff time that would be better spent on enablement, Ms Marshall said.
Literacy and access to literacy resources are foundations of community wellbeing with international evidence showing that:
- Most people blocked from borrowing because of fines are from lower socio-economic areas.
- Fines-free increases morale of customers and staff and removes feelings of embarrassment when utilising service and the perception of a punitive approach.
- Worldwide evidence has shown people will still return books and regular users will not suffer a drop in service.
Potential gains for Rotorua Library in going fines-free, based on overseas and national experience include:
- Between 1000 and 5000 potential new members;
- An increase in issues of 10,000 to 50,000;
- 826 members currently blocked from services due to fines will have access to collections restored.
Meanwhile, more schools are choosing to reduce in-house library services due to budget restrictions, making public libraries even more important. Some schools already use the public library as “their library”.
A revenue loss of approximately $25,000 per year is expected by removing library fines and library staff are working with council’s finance department on budget savings to offset this. The library team will also be working with finance on a book return amnesty and appropriate debt write-off to make the programme as successful and fair as possible.
The move to go fines-free, which was applauded by the Operations & Monitoring Committee, will come into effect from the start of the 2022/23 financial year, 1 July 2022. Fines will still apply to lost books and unpaid losses will still result in removal of borrowing privilege but Ms Marshall said staff were looking into potential funding available for children who lost books and might be blocked.
There will be a one-off “clean slate” initiative for fines debt and lost books “to give everyone the chance to come back”.