Ever sheepishly brought back your favourite library book to the library, ready to face the consequences of having it longer than you should have?
Well that no longer is a situation that people will be in after the Strathmore Municipal Library announced that there will be no late fees for books in 2022. The sweeter part of the deal is that there will also be no charge for signing up for a library card.
“For a long time, the library board has been looking for ways to make the library more accessible to everybody, but particularly those who are marginalized and who encountered more barriers using the library,” explained Director of Library Service, Rachel Dick Hughes.
“We've done things like food for fines, read your fines away, but during COVID, we weren't charging fines or membership fees and our budget had to reflect that decrease. Those fees ended up making up less and less of our budget to a point that the board felt it was worthwhile asking council if they would be able to just make up that difference.”
By 2021, only 1% of the library’s budget relied on overdue fines, and another 3% on library card fees. Strathmore Town Council agreed to provide $21,000 in additional funding for 2022 to cover the expected loss of revenue associated with eliminating the fees.
“There have been lots of studies about how fines impact different groups and in bigger cities, for instance, you find that people who live in lower-income areas tend to have a way higher percentage of blocked library cards from fees than people who live in high-income areas. People with children also suffer because they tend to take out 25-30 books at a time, whereas the typical adult takes out maybe three to five,” Dick Hughes continued. “If those books are a week late, then the parents with the kids are paying a huge price compared to the regular adult user.”
Dick Hughes said that these scenarios do not correlate with the library's mission of lifelong literacy and access to resources for everyone.
To make sure that the library's resources do indeed come back they have initiated a new protocol around past due items.
“If you haven't brought an item back after 45 days, then the item is billed to your account and at that point, you won't be able to borrow anything until it comes back,” continued Dick Hughes. “Libraries have gone fine free before and they have found that their return rates aren’t really affected. If anything, they see more returns because people aren’t scared to return it.”
To register for your free library card, visit the library at 85 Lakeside Blvd or go to the website at www.strathmorelibrary.ca/memberships.
Fri, May 3, 10:00 AM
