For a while, Greenwood Public Library workers thought long-missing books were gone forever.
At the end of 2018, the library got rid of fines for past due books, and then they came pouring back in, said Cheryl Dobbs, the library’s executive director.
“We had a very good experience,” Dobbs said. “One thing we noticed, lost books began to be returned. We kept track of the value of books returned that we thought were gone forever. We found fines didn’t bring books back to the library, they kept people away. They would see a big dollar amount and they wouldn’t be able to pay that and they stayed away and kept the books. Those lost books flooded back in the first year and we saw the value of those lost books returned completely offset the fines forgiven.”
In 2019, the library forgave $10,157 in library debt, but received back $14,317 in books returned, a net gain of more than $4,000, she said.
Library staff didn’t know why their books weren’t returned and Dobbs said she assumed that people had lost them.
“We didn’t know it was happening; we thought it was just lost books. We didn’t know people just weren’t returning them,” Dobbs said. “The main thing of having fines, it kept people away from the library. People wouldn’t renew their cards because they had fines. Not only did we get books back, when we went fine free, card issuance went up a bit.”
In January, the Johnson County Public Library followed suit, scrapping their “read down your fines” program, which reduced library fines for patrons who read at library branches, said Jody Veldkamp, the library system’s spokesperson.
“In our research, we learned that people return library materials, with or without fines,” he said in an email. “By not charging fines, we help our residents have more access to our materials. Not being able to use your library card when there are fines on your account is the biggest disadvantage of having fines.”
Library director Lisa Lintner consulted 80 different Indiana libraries that had adopted a fine-free system, and found none of them regretted eliminating fines, Veldkamp said, noting it was too early to determine the monetary and numerical benefits of the Johnson County Public Library implementing the change.
Getting rid of late fees will help encourage young patrons to use the library, said Lori Roberts, circulation supervisor.
“It’s such a wonderful thing to be able to help a young patron check out items and not have to tell them they’re not allowed due to the fines on their account,” Roberts said in an email. “This new way of doing business will help students, families and all residents.”
