Some Suburban Libraries Decide To Drop Late Fees: Here's Why

A handful of suburban libraries, including the Vernon Area Library District, have decided to stop fining patrons who forget to return their books, movies and CDs on time. And the decision to do so has meant a drop in nearly $700,000 in revenue from fines per year since 2015, according to a Daily Herald analysis of 51 suburban area library districts. The Vernon Area Library District, Ela Area Public Library as well as libraries in Algonquin, Wood Dale, Kaneville and Lakemoor's River East no longer collect fines, the Daily Herald reports.

Why did some of these libraries drop fines?

"Nobody likes to shake anybody down for 10 cents. Our patrons didn't like it, and our staff didn't like doing it," said Cindy Fuerst, director of the Lincolnshire-based Vernon Area Library District told the Daily Herald.

Library officials in Algonquin said they dropped their fines for overdue materials policy in September 2014 – becoming one of the first library districts in the area to do so – as "an effective, customer-friendly incentive for cardholders to return their books on time."

"Also, credit card fees and staff time associated with processing overdue items reduced the amount of overdue fines collected to less than 1 percent of the library’s operating budget," according to a press release from the library district. The library district does fine cardholders for lost or damaged items.

Other libraries are getting creative with ways to help patrons minimize late feees while still collecting fines.

The Batavia Library District still issues fines but did institute automatic renewals that "precluded a lot of materials from becoming late, Batavia Public Library District Director George Scheetz told the Daily Herald. The move did affect the library district's bottom line: late fee revenue dropped from $45,686 in 2015 to $16,931 in 2017.

Some libraries found that once they dropped fines, they saw an increase in new patrons signing up for library cards and also saw the the average number of days it took a patron to return late materials drop from 19 days to 11 days, according to the Daily Herald.

Still, many library boards say they need the revenue and do not plan to nix fines anytime soon, including Elgin's Gail Borden Library District. Carole Medal, executive director of Elgin's Gail Borden Library District told the Daily Herald that fines provide "an incentive to return materials."