[Michlib-l] Patron Payoff-

[Patricia Braden]

Having her work off the fine/replacement costs would probably end up costing you money since you would have to have someone "train" and supervise her. I'd let it go and consider it an exception to the rule. I would explain to her that your are making an exception and that it is a one time deal. Then put a note in her record stating that future fines will not be waived - that is if you are keeping her patron record in the system. Just because you waive one fine, does not mean you have to waive fines for others. 

Hope that helps! 



Patty Braden 
Library Director 
Romulus Public Library 
11121 Wayne Road 
Romulus, MI 48174 
(734) 942-7589 
www.romulus.lib.mi.us 

Serving Romulus and Huron Township 



----- Original Message -----

From: "Miriam Andrus" <mandrus at bigrapids.lib.mi.us> 
To: "Michlib-L (michlib-l at mcls.org)" <michlib-l at mcls.org> 
Sent: Friday, September 2, 2016 2:01:13 PM 
Subject: [Michlib-l] Patron Payoff- 



We have an interesting predicament at the Big Rapids Community Library. We have a patron who moved and lost 3 audiobooks. We have charged her for the lost items and eventually she was sent to collections. She contacted the library and being unemployed, she has asked if she can work off the fine. She just graduated from college and is job hunting, hence she has no money to pay the fine. I approached my board with her request and they asked me to poll the group of libraries to see what your thoughts are and if anyone has ever dealt with this kind of a situation. 
I see that we have two choices. 
Either she doesn’t and can’t pay the fine so it sits on her account perpetually (which really does us no good or her for that matter) 
We let her volunteer to pay off her fine (this opens the flood gates for other people to do the same thing, also not good for us) 

We could of course waive the fine but that also opens a flood gate. Also, I should mention she moved out of our service area and still wants to settle her account. 

So we are stuck. Any wisdom from the group would be appreciated. 
Thank you, 

-Miriam Andrus, Director 
Big Rapids Community Library 

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