Library fines abolished as guilt proves a more effective weapon

THE City of Sydney’s library has scrapped fines for overdue books after finding that borrowers were more likely to return books on time if there was no threat of a penalty.

The policy shift came after librarians discovered that guilt was a more powerful motivator than fear in the battle to get books back on time, as they reminded borrowers that their laziness denied others the chance to read the books themselves.

The library has received almost 70,000 overdue books under an amnesty that began seven months ago, more than triple the usual amount, including several items that had been missing for 10 years.

Clover Moore, Sydney’s Lord Mayor, said fines tended to “frighten” many borrowers who simply opted not to re- turn to the library. “Library fines have always been used to deter people from leaving their books at home,” she said.

“But we’ve found that in most cases they had the opposite effect, frightening members into never returning their overdue items. This new ap- proach encourages positive community responsibility and sharing, rather than penalising people.”

Following the success, the city council has decided to abandon fines at each of its nine branches until 2021. Lynette Makin, the head of the New South Wales state Public Libraries Association, said a previous amnesty at a rural library involved telling people “if they didn’t return the books, that other people couldn’t borrow them”.

“That worked beautifully,” she told ABC News. “We went from having a third of our collection overdue, to under 10 per cent.

“After that, our overdue items stayed at a very low level.”

She added: “It’s never too late to hand a book back, sometimes when you hand them back we don’t know, it might be very valuable.”

Ms Moore said the City of Sydney’s library, which holds more than 400,000 books, still had several items that were up to 14 years overdue. “Ironically, many of the overdue books were in the self-help category, including books offering advice on how to declutter and tidy up,” she said.