Library Board of Trustees Agenda and Packet 2018 01 11

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on time; and only very steep fines seem to have had any significant effect on overdue occurrences. While not conducted in a public library environment, Mitchell and Smith's (2005) experiment in an academic library is worth noting. They attempted to determine whether rewards, rather than punitive fines, affected the timely return of academic library materials. Even the presence of rewards as incentives did not influence the promptness, or lack thereof, of students in returning materials. Also in academia, librarians at Vancouver Island University removed fines to determine if this might improve use of the physical collection by their student population of non-traditional, adult and first generation students (Reed, Blackburn & Sifton, 2014). The authors reported the removal of overdue fines did not increase circulation, but the collection wasn't "pillaged," and there was no increase in overdue items. The authors believe "fines are a contentious topic among librarians, with many strongly held beliefs about their effectiveness backed by little evidence" (p. 275). In seeking to determine why borrowing rates were down in libraries in the United Kingdom, Breslin and McMenemy (2006) conducted a survey of patrons and found that library rules, restrictive hours and "not feeling welcome" were all factors in the decline. Clayton and Chapman (2009) reported on a survey of public libraries in England and Wales. Like Burgin and Hansel, these authors found a lack of published research on the attitudes toward, and the effectiveness of, fines and fees in public libraries. Instead, they highlighted a 7