Photo by Robert A. DeFrank – St. Clairsville Public Library Director Doug Walsh, right, and librarian Sierra Musser announce the library is permanently suspending fines for overdue materials.
Patrons of the St. Clairsville Public Library need no longer worry about fines should their borrowed materials become overdue.
To mark National Library Week, April 3-9, the library is permanently ceasing its past policy of charging late fees.
“We wanted to make the move to remove late fees,” Director Doug Walsh said. “The board made this decision, so we’ll no longer be collecting or charging people overdue fines if they bring materials back late. It’s kind of a trend in public libraries.”
Walsh said the policy will begin with National Library Week.
“In years past, what we have done is offer for that week a chance for people to bring materials back and we’d waive their fines during National Library Week. That’s what makes this such a bigger event. We’re not doing just that one week,” Walsh said. “We’re excited about it, and we think the patrons we serve will be excited as well.”
Walsh said this should be of greater convenience for patrons.
“People are sometimes stressed out about fines. A number of people, they get fines and they’re afraid or embarrassed by that and don’t want to come in and clear their record,” Walsh said. “We don’t want to lose those customers, so that’s another reason. We’re also finding if we look at our patrons who have overdue fines a lot of them are children, and we certainly don’t want to have children losing access to the library because of overdue fines.”
However, if items are kept out for an inordinate amount of time, a replacement fee will be charged.
“We still want our materials back. There will eventually be a ‘lost’ charge applied. If it’s too many days past overdue, we’re just going to assume it was lost,” Walsh said. “As far as being a few days late, there will be no overdue fines.”
Walsh added that the financial impact on the library should be negligible. He said the board looked at different factors in making the decision, such as the period of time during the pandemic when fines temporarily ceased across all public libraries.
“It’s a little bit easier for us to understand what it would be like not to charge overdue fines. As far as the amount of our budget, we calculate that actually one-tenth of 1 percent of our budget is overdue fines. It was such a small amount that it’s not anything that was actually helping us to operate the library. … It avoids some of those difficult conversations with our customers and keeps things on a positive,” he said. “It encourages them to borrow materials, knowing they have to return them but knowing if they’re a day or two later it won’t incur a fine.”
In addition, Walsh said the theme of the week this year is “Connect to your Library,” and the St. Clairsville district has a technology trainer, Calvin Connor of St. Clairsville, earning technology degrees at Belmont College, to assist patrons with their technology questions.
“People are stopping by with a new phone or questions about their phone or laptop, and he will set up an appointment and talk to him. That’s another way people are connecting with our library.”
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