S.F. Library throwing book at those owing most in fines
The San Francisco Public Library tried being nice. Now it’s playing hardball.
It wants its overdue books back, and it’s going to sic the tax collector on 13,000 of its worst offenders.
In a new crackdown, which takes effect Jan. 1, the library will ask the office of the San Francisco tax collector — the same outfit that evicts people from their homes for not paying their property taxes — to get into the act.
“We have an opportunity to reach out to our patrons,” said library spokeswoman Katherine Jardine, adding that it’s the first time the tax collector — and the full range of debt collection strategies — have been employed to settle library debts.
In past years, the library has offered amnesty to scofflaw borrowers, waiving overdue fees and lost book charges to get books returned. Last winter, the library got back 2,000 missing books in its most recent amnesty program. (One of the returned books, a collection of short stories, had been borrowed in 1917 by the great-grandmother of the man who brought it back with a sheepish expression.)
The library offered amnesty in 2009, 2004 and 1998 as well. But not this time. If you offer amnesty too often, say librarians, there’s no incentive for scofflaws to return the books. They can just wait around for the next amnesty.
Under the six-month crackdown, dreamed up by City Librarian Luis Herrera and announced at a recent meeting of the San Francisco Library Commission, the library will pay $73,000 to the Bureau of Delinquent Revenue arm of the tax collector to hire its debt collectors and have them use “leverage mechanisms to resolve debt on a case-by-case basis.”
The mechanisms will start with a series of three letters and three emails that say “tax collector” on them, Jardine said, and ratchet up from there.
If library patrons have moved, Jardine said, city debt collectors “may use their resources to find out where the individual lives now.” They can also put deadbeats on installment plans and accept partial payments to settle accounts, just like auditors from the Internal Revenue Service.
But the library says there will be no heavy-handed debt collector stuff such as credit rating dings, late-night phone calls or property liens as punishment for such offenses as failing to return “Green Eggs and Ham.”
“This is not going to be the same thing as having a person come to repossess your TV in the middle of the night,” promised Cathy Delneo, the library’s chief of branches.
Herrera told the library commission that debt collectors’ techniques would be “consistent with their collection efforts for other city departments” such as San Francisco General Hospital.
At present, the fine for overdue books is 10 cents a day, up to a maximum of $5. After that, the book is assumed lost and the borrower is billed for its replacement cost. The library’s 135,000 active borrowers owe $3.7 million in fines and fees. The new program is targeted at only the worst offenders, those who owe more than $100. Jardine said only 2 percent of borrowers are responsible for half the total outstanding fines and fees.
Patrons with more than $10 in fines are forbidden from checking out more books and materials, although they are free to visit the library and read books on the premises and use facilities such as the restrooms, Jardine said.