[Michlib-l] Going Fine Free Responses

[Dan Hutchins]

As promised, please find the responses I received on going fine free below:

We went fine free in January of 2018. We have seen an increase of patrons coming back to the library who had previously been blocked. Our materials are coming back at about the same rate as before. As a PR move, patrons are very happy with it. It is amazing how deeply that punative mindset was ingrained in everyone.     Yes, our new materials are coming back too. People overall are pretty courteous of each other. We have actually had a decrease in lost items. I think that before people would be afraid to bring them back at a certain point because they would be fined (I know this is silly because they would be billed at some point for replacement cost). I would be happy to answer any specific questions you have.

Erin Schmändt
Director

Caro Area District Library

 

We went fine free back in August. It is hard to say that our overdue books have gone up because of it. We are requesting more and more MeL books for our patrons and because of load balancing we are sending out more to other libraries and our number one cause of overdues is late MeL books. If overdue books have gone up with our regular patrons it is only slightly. Circulation has not gone up noticeably. 

The biggest benefit has been the good will that it has generated among our patrons. Most who return books late are chagrined at doing so and very apologetic, when they find out there is no fine they are thrilled. We keep a donation jar on the circulation desk and our donations have gone up because they are happy to drop some money in the jar when they find out they don’t owe anything.

We are still diligent about notifying patrons when they are overdue and still use the same procedures when they are overdue for an extended period. We haven’t seen an increase in books that are not being returned at all, or ones that are months late.

Hope this helps.

Mark Morton

Director

Leland Township Public Library

 

We recently went fine free last September and will never look back. Giventhat we serve a high percentage of low-income families, fines werecreating a barrier. Our circulation increased about 5-10% month to monthwhen compared to months with fines administered to patrons and we aregetting our items back on time a lot more frequently. Patrons that wouldhave happily paid the fine typically donate their "fine" to the library.
Alycia McKowen
Library Director

St. Ignace Public Library



We floated the idea and got TONS of negative feedback.  People wanted delinquents folks to pay. They said the library needed the money. Was not received well and we didn't do it.  On the other hand our 8 automatic renewals is really popular and in essence does away with fines except for lost materials.
Christine Lind Hage

Director
Rochester Hills Public Library

 

The Garden City Public Library went fine free on April 10.  This is probably too recent to give you any useful data, but the patron response has all been positive.

James B Lenze
Director

Garden City Public Library

 

Allegan District Library went fine free on print materials in January.  This includes essentially all materials save our DVDs and the few "things" we checkout like board games and so on. We also did a complete fine reset at this time and everyone's fines were wiped clean although we did still retain bills for lost and damaged items. I have thoughts on both the fine free and wiping the slate clean but first I'll answer your questions and then give you my two-cents.

 

Answers to your questions:

1. Circ: This one is tough for me to answer because our circ is up but I believe it is due to the new building, not fine free. We have seen an increase in people in our door since the new addition opened in November and even more since we completed the project in April so I really do think that is the cause in the increase.

 

2. Overdues: Overdues have not increased. Folks that brought stuff in late before are still bringing stuff in late and those there were prompt are still prompt.

 

3. Lost Items: This has gone up but at the same rate as circ has gone up so I don't attribute this to fine free.

 

Here is my overall take. The fine free on print materials allowed us to say we were knocking down a barrier that prevented us from achieving our mission of equitable access to information, education, and literacy. And I do believe it resulted in this as I think it predominantly helped with lower socioeconomic folks for whom a $5 fine meant they stopped coming. It has also though, really pleased families of all socioeconomic backgrounds as they tend to be the ones that check out 30-50 books and then struggle to get them back on time. The fine reset also helped bring folks back who were staying away due to fines although I would say communicating both this reset and the removal of fines on print materials was challenging as getting to those non-regular users or the ones that quit coming 2 years ago because of fines is not easy.

 

We did also have to specifically budget for this but the Board always had an uneasy relationship with budgeting based upon our own users poor behavior. And as it has turned out, about 60% of our fines come from our DVD collection anyways so we still have those funds coming in although we no longer rely on them. 

 

We also changed our circ protocol a bit when we did this. We now only keep new items on shorter circ periods (new books are 14 days and new dvds are 3 days) for three months whereas before it was six months. I think this change too has affected the overdue rate as now less items have a quick turnaround and thus are more likely to get back on time. This has also really pleased folks leading us to consider extending the new dvd circ period to 7 days.

 
The final thing I would say is that this change has definitely led to less confrontations and/or challenging conversations at the circ desk and more library good will and for those reasons alone I would highly recommend it.
Ryan Deery

Director

Allegan District Library

 

First, we are a small Class 2 library. We have always been fine free, with the exception of DVD and Blu-ray movies. We find that we have a higher return rate when people realize that we are only interested in the materials, not in punishment. We do overdues quarterly and find that 95% of people are happy to pay for material that they can't find. We consider the other 5% the cost of doing business; it's no higher than the rate at which materials wear out from use. As a small library we can't justify staff time spent on it. 

 

All that said, we do check materials with holds weekly and call people when they are overdue. We find a friendly call reminding someone that another reader is waiting is all that's needed. 

 

Our previous administration did turn people over to the County's Economic Fraud Unit. We found that generated a lot of ill will and wasted a lot of time and resources, and stopped. Overall, our policies create so much goodwill that I wouldn't trade it for anything. 

Ann Sanders

Director

Dorothy Hull Library

 

We've been fine free since January 1, except we charge overdue fines on new release overnight videos. To date, we have not experienced an increase in either overdue or lost items. At the same time we introduced fine-free we also began auto-renewing materials with available renewals (i.e. no reserves pending, maximum of one renewal for new release items, maximum of two renewals for non-new items).

It has gone well enough that I recommended and my board approved changing policy and continuing the fine-free/auto-renewal indefinitely (was in a trial period from January 1 to June 1 while we collected data).

I can't say circulation has gone up, since I don't have enough data to draw conclusions based on circulation figures (could be the fine-free, could be the auto-renewal, could just be the weather), but goodwill certainly has.

Jessica Little

T.A. Cutler Memorial Library

 

We went fine free on January 1, and our circulation is up 22%. Having said that, we added auto-renewal to our circulation system (Innovative's Sierra) on January 1 also, so the bulk of the increase is in the renewals, not the fine free program.   Sierra will allow for 2 auto renewals if there are no holds on the item.

 

As for branch increases, some have been up 2-12%, but we have also seen continued decreases in some branches.  Our digital formats, Overdrive, Zinio, and Hoopla are all up substantially from last year. 

 

I may or may not have made this clear enough--renewals and digital checkouts are not attributed to a particular branch.

 

Good luck--we are very satisfied with our decision, if that helps at all!

Nancy Bellaire

Director

Monroe County Library System

 

We have been fine free since January.  Circulation has gone up significantly, but we also became a 7 day a week operation (during the school year) at the same time.  So, the stats are skewed some.  I know being fine free has been easier on the Circulation Staff.  

 

We thought that those people who always seemed to return books on time would continue to do so and those who did not return items on time would continue to not return items on time.  Anecdotal evidence at this time suggests that has been true, so far.  For in demand items, people seem to be returning them on time or a day or two late (not any different from before).  

 

There are some in our cooperative that suggest that they will lose business because their patrons will come here to avoid fines (we use a fine free checkin for all returns).  We haven't seen a huge increase in non-resident use to date, but we've always had a high number of non-resident use and being open on Sundays impacts that usage, since there are only 2 of our immediate neighbor libraries open on Sundays.  

Tina L. Hatch, Director 

Milford Public Library

 

 
Dan Hutchins
Director
Van Buren District Library
200 North Phelps Street
Decatur, MI 49045
dhutchins at vbdl.org
http://www.vbdl.org
269-423-4771
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