The Great Library Fine Debate

Posted on August 15, 2008

A fierce debate has arisen in Britain over the subject of library fines. Librarians want them reduced or eliminated, saying that readership is down and that libraries face competition from the Internet, tv and movies.

"Libraries are facing competition from television, magazines, the internet, e-books, yet they have this archaic and mad idea of charging people money for being slightly late," said library consultant Frances Hendrix - a loud voice in the debate which has been taking place on an online forum for librarians. "It's all so negative, unprofessional and unbusinesslike; like any business, libraries need not to alienate their customers." Liz Dubber, director of programmes at reading charity The Reading Agency, agreed. "My personal view [is that] they're past their sell-by date because they do sustain a very old-fashioned image of libraries which is out of sync with today's modern library environment and the image libraries are trying to project - tolerant, responsive, flexible, stimulating," she said.
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The other side of the debate points out that without fines, customers are unlikely to return their books. Alison Wheeler, adult services manager at Suffolk Libraries, told the Guardian that her personal view was that some people do need the "occasional financial nudge" to remind them about doing the right thing. "No one would argue against a parking or speeding fine -- if we didn't have speeding fines it wouldn't mean that people behaved better on the roads," she added.

If there were no library fines, would people turn their books in on time -- or turn them in at all? We've never really considered the issue. Being cynics, we tend to think that without fines, libraries would eventually have no books at all.