Turning the page on Hume Libraries fines
Published on 07 January 2020
Hume Libraries members will no longer pay fines for overdue books and have previous fines wiped as part of an 18-month trial commencing from 1 January 2020.
Mayor of Hume City, Councillor Carly Moore said over 40 per cent of public libraries in Victoria have now taken steps to abolish late fines.
“The positive results from across these libraries indicate that a fine free approach will make borrowing library resources more accessible, while not adversely impacting existing borrowers,” Cr Moore said.
“Local libraries thrive on a culture of sharing and we are trusting that our library visitors will do the right thing and return books in a timely manner.”
Research has shown late fines can be counter-productive, and many customers do not return books at all if overdue fines become too high. By removing overdue fines from Hume’s libraries, we ensure financial barriers do not discourage borrowing.
Cr Moore said public libraries are for everyone and if a financial penalty is the difference between someone being able to access a book or not we want to remove that barrier.
“We recognise that diligent library patrons have some concerns about waiting times for items they have reserved. To remedy this, we will continue to closely monitor the number of holds on a given title and will order additional copies to meet demand,” Cr Moore said.
“Throughout the trial we will also keep an eye on the amount of time our borrowers have to wait for their holds and aim to keep that waiting period to a maximum of six weeks.”
Borrowers will still need to return books by the due date and to facilitate this, borrowers will still receive a notification via email three days prior to the due date of their library item/s. Library customers are expected to renew items before the due date if they wish to keep the items longer and will receive a notification if someone else has the items on hold. If an item is over 21 days overdue the library customers will be unable to borrow new items until the item is returned.
For more information, visit www.humelibraries.vic.gov.au and follow Hume Libraries on Facebook.