Time to put library fines on the shelf By: Editorial Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2020

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/10/2020 (1431 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If the greater good is served when all members of the community have access to knowledge and the means to better themselves, then the way forward for city council is clear: end library fines.

Coun. Sherri Rollins, head of council’s protection and community services committee, has called for Winnipeg libraries to waive overdue fines for outstanding material to the end of this year and consider permanently eliminating late fees in the 2021 budget process. She argues fines can discourage people from using libraries with a “disproportionate effect on youth and low-income households.”

Ms. Rollins is not alone in her understanding that people with limited income — in addition to young people, they can include recent immigrants, and people who are unemployed or homeless — can be deterred from using libraries by the prospect of accumulating fines they can’t pay.

The American Library Association has called fines a form of social inequity and has called on libraries to stop collecting them. The go-fine-free library movement has been adopted by such Canadian centres as Saskatoon and Halifax, and a long list of U.S. cities including Chicago, San Francisco and Nashville.

People in favour of maintaining library fines typically argue their municipal government needs the money. Winnipeg must be thrifty with its revenue, without question, but library fines contribute only a pittance. Statistics show the annual fine revenue for the Winnipeg system is only about two per cent of the library system’s total operating budget. And that relatively small amount itself comes at a cost, as library employees must neglect more important duties as they monitor patrons to send out notices, and try to collect.

A second common argument is that fines teach patrons to be more responsible, but punishing patrons for careless behaviour should not be the duty of a library; rather, the role of libraries is to provide welcoming environments where all citizens can find free and universal access to a broad range of knowledge and experience. That role is undermined when patrons feel estranged because their borrowing privileges are suspended when, in the Winnipeg system, the amount due hits $15.

A third argument is that many people won’t return materials if there is no danger of fines, but that hasn’t been the experience of libraries that have gone fine-free — in 2016, a report for Winnipeg’s former manager of library services, Rick Walker, noted libraries that stopped fining young people found no significant increase in the unreturned material but, encouragingly, there was a noticeable increase in the number of young people using the libraries.

Ms. Rollins’ pitch to change the way in which Winnipeg libraries regard their patrons comes at a time when libraries are more important than ever. In the context of a pandemic that has shuttered many other public places as winter weather looms, local libraries remain a safe and warm refuge. For the tens of thousands of Manitobans whose jobs have been undercut by pandemic shutdowns, libraries offer a positive place to take stock and perhaps research a new future.

And for young people without adequate technology at home to adapt to the online learning, libraries offer access to computers and services such as printers and copiers.

It’s time for the Winnipeg system to join other libraries that have found their operations improved when they stopped inflicting financial sanctions on the people who use them. The relationship between libraries and their patrons should be one of mutual respect. In a relationship based on trust, fines are a costly imposition.