Title
HEARING - Library Department recommending the Board:
1) Adopt and authorize the Chair to sign Resolution 212-2024 revising the library fines and fees schedule to end fines for overdue items and update replacement cost charges;
2) Direct staff to return to the Board with a discharge of liability request to waive the collection of outstanding overdue fines and fees that have been eliminated with the above Resolution.
FUNDING: Library Fines and Fees.
Body
DISCUSSION / BACKGROUND
The current schedule of fines and fees was established in 1995 and last reviewed in 2007. The schedule does not align with the practices of neighboring library systems or modern borrowing philosophies for public libraries. Fines or charging fees to borrow items create community inequalities that can affect some of the most vulnerable populations including children, families, and those on a fixed income. Many libraries that have implemented a 'fine free' model report an increase in returned overdue items, library card applications, and item checkouts. The fine free model does not charge fines for overdue materials, but charges for lost or damaged items. Any patron with an item kept 21 days past the item due date will have their account locked until the item is returned or an item replacement cost is paid.
Overdue fines and video rental costs generate approximately $70,000 annually for Library Department. By moving from a proprietary to open-source integrated library system ("ILS") and online public assess catalog ("OPAC") in the Summer of 2024, the Library Department strategically created an annual cost-savings as a potential path to no longer charge overdue fines or video rental fees to their customers and become a 'fine free' library system. The Library will combine this action with a reduction in wireless hotspot and physical audiobook budgets and upgrade self-checkout machines to a product included in the open-source ILS, resulting in an annual cost-savings of approximately $7...
Click here for full text