Library users owe $4m in fees

If New Zealanders paid their library fines, our councils’ coffers would be boosted by more than $4 million.

Aucklanders alone owe their libraries more than $2.5m in late fees and unpaid fines.

Auckland Libraries was seeking to recover $540 for a DVD from its worst customer, who also owed another $1531 in fees and charges for other unreturned and late loans.

The DVD was titled Volume 6: Rembrandt, Vermeer, and had been counted as ‘‘lost’’ on the library’s ledger.

The customer had taken out DVDs, mostly documentaries. Auckland Libraries has charged the customer $2071.62 for 35 overdue DVDs.

While most of the almost $4.5 million sum owed to New Zealand’s major libraries was made up of small fines, libraries in all our major cities have big ticket offenders owing upwards of $1000 each.

Wellington’s most tardy library patron, owed $2713.26, and had 18 books outstanding, including three books about Vincent van Gogh and collections of art history and science textbooks.

The capital’s library was seeking to receive almost $1500 in ‘‘lost items’’ charges, as well as $592 worth of fines and debt collection charges equalling $652.28, according to data obtained under the Official Information Act.

The Road Code was the most commonly overdue book in Tauranga, Auckland and Wellington. The Tauranga library had stopped supplying it in print, instead opting to loan digital copies.