Library Board of Trustees Agenda and Packet 2018 01 11

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Memo Date: January 11, 2018 To: Louisville Library Board of Trustees From: Beth Barrett, Director of Library and Museum Services Re: Elimination of overdue fines on children's library materials At a previous meeting of the Library Board we briefly discussed the concept of no longer charging overdue fines for children's books that have not been returned on time. I broached the subject because many Colorado public libraries are eliminating fines on overdue children's materials, including other libraries in the Flatirons Library Consortium. This is an idea strongly endorsed by the State Library as well. I support this idea for the following reasons: ■ Public libraries are essential partners for young children who are learning to read or who are pre -readers. One of Louisville Library's five Strategic Plan goals is to promote literacy. For children, our primary objective states: "Our collections, programs, and services help ensure that children enter school ready to read, and empower parents and caregivers to build and support literacy skills in their children." ■ Fines keep low-income families from using the library. These are the residents who may have the most to gain from using the library. ■ Adults typically check out one or two items at a time. Checkouts for children, on the other hand, routinely include a dozen or more items on each visit. Even at ten cents a day, overdue fines add up quickly when there are many items checked out. ■ The traditional view has been that charging families for overdue children's materials teaches them responsibility. What we hear anecdotally is that in many cases it teaches them to avoid the library altogether. ■ We often hear that a primary reason people have stopped using their libraries is because they have unpaid overdue fines. Among the members of the Flatirons Library Consortium, with whom we share a catalog, Boulder and Longmont do not charge for overdue children's materials. Broomfield is hoping to move in that direction and Lafayette cut their fines for children's materials to a nickel. Outside the FLC, the Denver Public Library, High Plains Library District (Weld County Libraries), Rangeview Library District (Anythink libraries), Pikes Peak Library District, and many smaller libraries have eliminated overdue fines for kids' books and other material. Overdue fines and fees produce about $48,000 in revenue for Louisville each year. Dropping overdue charges on children's print materials would probably cut that amount by about 55%, or $26,400. Public libraries are typically seen less as revenue generators than as public services: they are generally not