Stuff Digital Edition

Late fees not so fine any more

When Auckland ended fines, more than 32,000 Aucklanders were blocked.

Fans of the sitcom Seinfeld will recall a classic episode titled The Library, in which Jerry learns he is being chased for a book that was due back at the New York Public Library 20 years earlier.

A tough-talking library investigations officer named Bookman is on the case. How much does Jerry owe for that long-overdue copy of Tropic of Cancer? His friend Kramer guesses that the fine must be in the thousands.

It’s a borrower’s worst nightmare. But last month, the New York Public Library eliminated all fines and wiped unpaid debts, becoming the most high-profile library in the world to make such a move.

At least 12 councils in New Zealand, including Auckland, Waikato District, Nelson and Hutt City, have also abandoned fines. Christchurch is giving it serious thought, and has asked for a full report.

This will strike some people as counter-intuitive. To return to Seinfeld, Jerry remarks in the same episode that the library is like someone you knew at school who lent you his toys in the hope of being your friend. The library, he says, is like a government-funded pathetic friend.

Fines are surely the last bit of power that pathetic friend has. Without even the small penalties, why bother returning books on time?

The argument made by Tony Marx, president of the New York Public Library system, is that late fines do not bring books back. As he told NPR, almost all books come back anyway, because if people ‘‘are treated with respect and trust, they respond in kind’’, he said, before acknowledging that is ‘‘a very non-New York way of thinking’’.

What Marx and others in similar positions have learned is that fines hit poorer and younger people disproportionately. In the borough of Queens, twothirds of blocked accounts belonged to people aged 17 and younger.

Not only do libraries want those children and teenagers to borrow and read, they also risk losing them as adults. Of the 400,000 New Yorkers whose cards were blocked because they owed US$15 or more, more than half lived in what Marx called ‘‘high-needs communities’’.

The same thinking has driven the no-fines movement in New Zealand. When Auckland ended fines in September, more than 32,000 Aucklanders were blocked, as they owed $10 or more. More than $500,000 was owed.

Unsurprisingly, the axing of fines and wiping of debts increases membership and borrowing. But while the social and educational benefits are obvious, those who have been diligently doing the right thing and observing return dates might feel short-changed by the sudden relaxing of the rules.

Another problem is that libraries have been treating fines as a revenue stream. In Christchurch’s case, libraries collected nearly $300,000 in fines in the last financial year, and spent $42,000 on the collecting of fines. As of midNovember, the Christchurch library network was owed $143,409.

Based on these numbers, rates in Christchurch would have to increase by 0.05 per cent to replace the nearly $300,000 brought in by fines, or other revenue streams would have to be found.

However, these are small sums in the overall scheme of council budgets, and perhaps they are a fair price to pay for libraries to deliver on their promise of free information for all.

And books that are lost or never returned, like Jerry Seinfeld’s old copy of Tropic of Cancer, will still incur a replacement fee.

Opinion

en-nz

2021-11-27T08:00:00.0000000Z

2021-11-27T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://stuff.pressreader.com/article/282089165041602

Stuff Limited