City libraries end practice of charging late fees

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This article was published 30/12/2020 (1359 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Public Library will end the practice of charging late fees for overdue items and will clear existing fines, starting Friday.

“Overdue fines create a barrier for those who can benefit most from library services,” says a statement on the City of Winnipeg website. “Fines also create negative experiences for our community and library staff, and discourage use of the library.”

Borrowing fees for DVDs and Blu-ray disc will also no longer be charged.

However, items that aren’t returned to the library will still result in replacement fees being issued.

Most people taking out items are returning them on time, the city says.

Coun. Sherri Rollins (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry) put forward a motion in October to eliminate late fees at local libraries, noting the move would be in line with practices across the continent and remove a barrier to access for people who may need services most.

In Canada, public libraries in Calgary, Edmonton, and Halifax all moved to a fine-free model this year; libraries in Regina and Saskatoon will stop charging overdue fines Jan. 1.

COVID-19 opened a local window of opportunity to begin seriously discussing full elimination of late fees, after the city’s pandemic response included a then-temporary lifting of library fines.

“We were in a position where we had a report before council that said, ‘We could reinstate them after COVID, or after January, let’s never do them again,’” Rollins said. “That was the process that got us to the ‘yes’ on the council floor.”

City library services manager Ed Cuddy echoed the sentiment.

“The situation of us being in a pandemic, while it’s been a tough year all around, this has been one of the small but significant positives that have come out of that, in terms of library service,” he said.

Such discussions have spanned two terms of city council: in 2014, a motion put forward by Coun. Matt Allard (St. Boniface) pushing for an end to late fees for children’s materials failed. Rollins called it a “stepping stone” to the current decision.

“This policy is very much a story of, ‘If at first you don’t succeed, you must try again,’” she said.

Research has shown even small fines on library items drastically affect readership, and act as a disproportionate barrier for low-income residents. In a study referenced by the City of Winnipeg, researcher Sabrina Unrein from Syracuse University suggests libraries that cut off patrons after a certain total of accrued late fees will naturally be cutting off people without the funds to pay the fees.

The Syracuse study also found, after surveying 15 libraries across the U.S. that had abolished late fines, two-thirds reported an increase in the number of items borrowed, and 40 per cent found an increase in total library visits. Several that tracked wait times reported either an additional one or two days of wait time for books, or no added wait time at all.

“I think it also speaks to libraries really looking at their services through an equity lens, with the goal of making sure that library services are equitably accessible to the community — not just that they respond to community’s needs, but that they’re accessible on an equitable basis,” Cuddy said.

“And when you apply that lens to library fines, it becomes very clear that they fail that test… Fines are a barrier.”

Debby Sillito got her library card after she moved to Winnipeg 13 years ago, but accrued fines meant she eventually was forced to stop going. She volunteers with a service that provides support to people receiving provincial Employment and Income Assistance, and not being able to use library services made that work more difficult.

“I wasn’t able to go and get research information about that kind of work, and I wasn’t able to access the online version, because I owed fees on my library card,” Sillito said, adding she’s “thrilled” to start using the library again in 2021 — and knows many of the people she works with will feel the same way.

“People on EIA and people that are at that poverty level are struggling each and every day, what they need first is for rent, their food, their bills to be done first… the late fees, they get shoved way at the bottom,” she said.

“A lot of people in poverty, they want to get an education, they want to learn how to do things to get a job. If they’re in poverty and they have late fees, they can’t get to the library to get that information, so they can’t boost themselves up.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: malakabas_