文章基本信息

标题：Fine collection
作者：Needham, George M
期刊名称：Library Administrator's Digest
印刷版ISSN：0746-6129
出版年度：2002
卷号：Nov 2002
出版社：B C P L Friends, Inc.

Fine collection

Needham, George M

Dear Gayle,

In the March/April issue, you published a letter from a new director who was following someone who was fairly lax and arbitrary about collecting overdue fines. Your suggestion that the new director enforce the rules fairly was good, but maybe there is another possibility. Perhaps this would be the right time for the new director to suggest a completely different tack. Why not get rid of the fines completely? If the fines were only being collected from a subset of the library's users, they were inherently unfair. They also were probably not putting much additional revenue in the coffers.

Ending overdue fines removes a nasty old barrier from the dark ages when librarians thought the purpose of the library was to keep the books on the shelf. Our policies of "nickel and diming" people to death feed our image problem. Collecting 25 cents here and a dollar and a half there for an overdue Sweet Valley High paperback just makes us look tight. If we treat people like adults maybe, just maybe, they will treat us like adults, too! It's probably reasonable for libraries to keep (and enforce) policies that prohibit someone from renewing a card or checking out new materials if they have too many items checked out, but as the saying goes, why sweat the small stuff?

George M. Needham Vice President Member Services OCLC

"Ask Gayle," Rural Library Services Newsletter, Paulding County (OH) Carnegie Library, June 2002