Fine-free program expands to 14 Allegheny County libraries
Circulation up for first participants
The few dollars raised by fines and late fees are negligible in a library budget, but for some library patrons, those are the reason they walk out and don’t come back.
A fine-free program by the Allegheny County Library Association hopes to change that.
In an effort to increase accessibility, 14 county libraries are waiving late fees and fines, including two that hopped on the fine-free bandwagon after patrons and circulation numbers increased at participating libraries in the five months since the program’s debut.
One patron cried when finding out that money was no longer owed, said Nicole Henline, the director of the Monroeville Library.
“They’re coming in expecting to pay money they might not have,” she said.
Participating libraries wiped all outstanding fines and no longer charge for late returns, but they will continue to bill for lost and stolen items.
The program was piloted in September with nine libraries. Since November, circulation in seven of those libraries increased by nearly 14%. New library card registrations increased by 15% during the first three months. At the Baldwin Borough Public Library, active library users increased by 48%.
A three-ring notebook sitting behind the Penn Hills Library circulation desk records patrons’ reactions to the program.
“Waiving fees will keep us coming back WAY more often,” one entry reads. “[My 6-year-old and I] love spending time at the library, but sometimes forget to return and the fees keep us away until we can afford to return. We are so grateful! We will be back often!!!”
Ms. Henline said it’s about making people feel like they belong at their library.
“It’s easier to create better relationships [between library staff and patrons] when there’s not a punitive part to it,” she said.
Allegheny County libraries are just a few in a nationwide fine-free movement that first took hold in 2017, according to The Urban Libraries Council research institution. In 2018, the ULC began tallying libraries in the United States and Canada that forgive library fines. That count reached 277, ranging from San Diego to Denver to Cleveland.
Fines range from 10 cents to 50 cents per item a day in Allegheny County, according to Marilyn Jenkins, executive director of the Allegheny County Library Association. Paying up is especially difficult for parents with children, who often have twenty or thirty books checked out on each family member’s card, said Erin Pierce, director of C.C. Mellor Memorial Library in Edgewood and Forest Hills.
At the Penn Hills Library’s
notebook, some didn’t like the lack of consequences for returning books late and worry that a lack of retribution will lead to stolen materials.
“Your movie shelves are going to be empty!” one entry read.
Another said, “Quit coddling people! How are kids going to develop responsibility?”
Others worried that their taxes will increase to compensate for lost revenue.
When the county looked into starting the fine-free program, its decision to go forward was partly based on research that showed that, despite facing a penalty, people didn’t return materials on time.
A research project conducted in one Colorado library district found that, after six months of no fees, circulation had increased and that 95% of its materials had been returned within a week of the due date.
Additionally, fines and fees amount to less than 3% of library budgets in Allegheny County, according to library documents. The number continues to decrease, due to increased use of e-resources, which return themselves, as well as the county’s automatic renewal program.
C.C. Mellor’s Ms. Pierce said patron satisfaction doesn’t have a price tag. Even if it did, she said, the money lost in fines is only about $4,000 annually — or 1% of the budget — in C.C. Mellor’s case.
Ms. Jenkins, the library association director, said going fine-free is just one step in the process of changing libraries’ relationship with the public.
“[L]ibraries are no longer just buildings with books in them,” she said, adding that libraries are increasingly asking how they can best serve their community and implementing programs to meet those needs.
The Brentwood, Homestead and Monroeville libraries, for example, have brought in graduate students from the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Social Work to help refer patrons to social services and help staff members recognize patron behavior that needs attention, Ms. Jenkins said.
These nine libraries were part of the first phase of the program:
Baldwin Borough Public Library; Braddock Carnegie Library and its Turtle Creek satellite; C.C. Mellor Memorial Library in Edgewood and Forest Hills; Carnegie Free Library of Swissvale; F.O.R. Sto-Rox Library; Millvale Community Library; Monroeville Public Library; Penn Hills Library and its Lincoln Park satellite; and the Wilkinsburg Public Library and its branch in Eastridge.
The second phase, launched in November, added Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh’s Allegheny (North Side), East Liberty and Knoxville branches. Last month’s third phrase added the Andrew Bayne Memorial Library in Bellevue and the Carnegie Library of Homestead.