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Running Head: To Fine or Not

The document discusses the debate around whether school libraries should impose fines for overdue materials. It summarizes different approaches taken by libraries. Some libraries found that eliminating fines reduced costs and improved return rates of materials, while others found fines were needed to encourage timely returns. The best approach may be to educate students on library policies, allow alternatives to paying fines, and focus on encouraging library use overall rather than worrying excessively about overdue counts.

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128 views

Running Head: To Fine or Not

The document discusses the debate around whether school libraries should impose fines for overdue materials. It summarizes different approaches taken by libraries. Some libraries found that eliminating fines reduced costs and improved return rates of materials, while others found fines were needed to encourage timely returns. The best approach may be to educate students on library policies, allow alternatives to paying fines, and focus on encouraging library use overall rather than worrying excessively about overdue counts.

Uploaded by

aracauna
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as RTF, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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To Fine or Not 1

-1Running Head: To Fine or Not

To Fine or Not to Fine

Jacob Johnston

FRIT 7132 Administration of the School Library

Georgia Southern University


To Fine or Not 2

To Fine or Not to Fine

Fining is one of the more memorable aspects of library life. For many individuals who

graduated high school before the end of the 1990s, library fines are synonymous with the school

media centers. If asked the reason for library fines, many would probably respond that the fines

help teach students to be responsible with items entrusted into their possession as well as helping

to prevent the loss of school property and to help ensure that resources are available for other

students who come through the media center later looking for the same information. The more

cynical in the group may actually say that the fines serve much the same purpose as speed limits

in the stereotype of a small town: They help provide funds that wouldn’t otherwise be supplied

by taxes. However, despite these assumptions about the inevitability of school library fines, there

has been some debate recently as to the actual value of fines in the modern media center.

The March 1985 issue of the Library Journal reported that doing away with library fines

entirely actually saved the institution money. Lawrence J. Frank, executive director of the Amos

Memorial Library in Sidney, Ohio, said that the cost of processing overdue books in order to

collect the fines actually cost about five times more than the amount in fines collected. Late fees

were cost the library about $24,000 in 1981 and despite the fines, more than five percent of the

books in circulation were considered overdue. After the reduction in fines, the cost in processing

was eliminated, but the library saw another welcome change as well. The elimination of fines

coincided with a drop in overdue books, from five percent to less than one percent, starting in

1982 (“No fines,” 1985). It would be a librarian’s dream to be able to both reduce the workload

and improve the effectiveness of the system in one fell swoop. Unfortunately, there is no logical

explanation, in this article at least, that would explain why eliminating fines would actually

improve the rate at which materials are returned to the library. It makes perfect sense that
To Fine or Not 3

eliminating fines would reduce the work and paper load of the media center, so eliminating fines

is worth considering for a school media specialist. However, a single example of an elimination

of library fines improving the library’s circumstances does not make an effective argument.

In fact, about the same time that the Ohio library was finding success without fines,

another library, this time in Massachusetts, was doing away with their no-fine policy and

bringing back the overdue fees. The Goodnow Public Library of Sudbury had eliminated late

fees for many of the same reasons that the Amos Memorial Library went fine free. Library

administrators said after returning to overdue fines they had found that initially the no-fine policy

had worked as planned. Paperwork had been reduced. However, after an internal review, the

library discovered that items were being kept out longer and the library was actually sending out

more overdue notices. The percentage of materials returned to the library dropped from 96

percent in 1979 to only 80 percent by 1981 (“Restoration of fines,” 1981). Obviously, the no-fine

policy was not working for the Goodnow library. This leaves the answer to the question “to fine

or not to fine” a muddled mess. In one case it leaves the library as a whole better off. In another,

it creates a library that is hemorrhaging resources.

Of course if the answer about overdue fines were easy, there would be no controversy.

Perhaps the answer isn’t whether we should do away with fines entirely, but rather how we

should handle the process of dealing with overdue materials and the fines that are intended to

keep them from becoming overdue in the first place. In a School Library Journal article, Paula

Brehm Heeger suggests keeping overdue fines but tweaking the system to make it more user

friendly. Heeger mentions a Columbus, OH, survey that found that 41 percent of young adult

patrons had stopped using the library because their cards were blocked because of overdue fees.

Obviously, a school media center is unable to do its job if the students are unable or unwilling to
To Fine or Not 4

use the media center. Heeger suggests allowing poorer students to work off fines as library

volunteers. She also points out a method for reducing overdue resources in the first place, and

one that should be obvious to the school media specialist: education. Heeger said that it shouldn’t

be assumed that young adults understand the overdue fee policy or why they should get the items

they’ve borrowed back on time. Education, through one-on-one chats, small group or class

lessons, or even e-mail could help get students to get items back on time and reduce the amount

of overdue items in the first place. Another idea that would require a bit of extra work for the

media center staff, but could prove worth the effort, is setting up a system that reminds students

to get their items back in the media center before the items actually become overdue (Heeger,

2007).

Of course, perhaps Pamela S. Bacon has the best attitude when it comes to overdue

resources. In a 2005 Library Media Connection article, Bacon stressed that her staggering

overdue count (410 books in a media center serving 3,000 students) told her more about the

media center success than it did about failure (Bacon, 2005). Missing and overdue books show

that the media center is being used, which should be the top priority for a school media

specialist. Finding ways to get those materials back into the library and ready for the next student

or teacher should be a priority, but no system for handling overdue materials is going to be

perfect. The best bet is always to keep the students coming back. As school media specialists, we

do want to keep the resources our limited budgets have allowed us to collect for our patrons. In

fact, part of our job is to act as custodians of materials purchased with tax-payer money.

However, this need to preserve the collection must be balanced with the need to get students and

teachers to actually use the media center and the resources it houses. Without their desire to use

the program, the media specialist’s mission to create savvy users of informational media out of
To Fine or Not 5

our students becomes a failed mission. In the end, Heeger’s suggestion to use both education and

alternative means of payment to both make overdue fees less necessary and more effective in

getting materials returned on time is the best policy for school media specialists.
To Fine or Not 6

References

Bacon, P. (Don’t Overdo Worrying about Overdues! Library Media Collection, 24(3), 45-45.

Retrieved November 22, 2008, from Academic Search Complete Database.

Heeger, P. (2007, February). Better Late than Never. School Library Journal, 53(2), 30-30.

Retrieved November 22, 2008, from Academic Search Complete Database.

“No fines” saves money for Sidney, Ohio library. (1985, March). Library Journal, Retrieved

November 22, 2008, from Academic Search Complete Database.

Restoration of fines clicks at Sudbury, Mass.(1981, October). Library Journal, Retrieved

November 22, 2008, from Academic Search Complete Database.

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