Science fiction author Philip K. Dick was at one point in his career so poor he couldn’t even pay overdue fines at the library. That’s what I read in the preface to a collection of his short stories. It’s too late for him now, but a bunch of libraries are eliminating overdue fines.
The Detroit Public Library (DPL) might be the most recent library system to eliminate fines for books and other materials that are returned late.
At the end of August, I owed DPL something like $4 and change in overdue fines. Or maybe it was just a few cents less than $4, I don’t remember. After Labor Day, it was $0.00 for me. And probably also $0.00 for the vast majority of DPL patrons.
There have been a few different situations in the past in which DPL forgave fines for individual patrons on a case-by-case basis. Like the time last year I thought I was going to return some materials to the Main Library on a Friday but there was a gas main leak that closed several buildings in Midtown.
Before Bowen Branch got air conditioning, it would frequently close on the hotter summer days, which are more frequent now but also more spread out. There were also days in the winter it would close unexpectedly.
In those cases, it would have been fair to forgive overdue fines for DVDs and other materials that are supposed to be returned to the very same library they were checked out from.
And even for books it would have been fair to forgive overdue fines in the case of an unscheduled closing. If one branch is closed, it’s not always practical to go to another branch. Especially when you consider that some of them have very different hours.
There was also a grace period of one day, but apparently Sundays counted even if no branch nor the Main Library were open. For example, if you had to return a book on Friday, August 23, you could return it to the Main Library on Saturday, August 24 and there would be no overdue fine because of the one-day grace.
However, if it was due on August 24 but you didn’t return it until Monday, August 26 at a branch (Sunday hours might come back next month), you would find that you had accrued overdue fines for two days.
And if you accumulated $10 or more in overdue fines, even if you had no more overdue items, you would have been barred from checking out anything else until you paid that balance down or off.
After Labor Day this year, however, all overdue fines were erased, and no more overdue fines will be charged. But books and other materials will still have due dates for the same durations as before (generally three weeks for books, a week for DVDs).
In my case, I was supposed to return last week a couple of DVDs I checked out after Labor Day; I’ll be returning them later today if I get there before closing. I also intend to ask to extend a book that is due tomorrow.
Looking on the library’s website, I see that overdue fines for Beginning Scala by David Pollak (60¢ for three days overdue) and the movie Equity ($2 for two days overdue) were forgiven. It looks like I only owed $2.60.
The most recent overdue fines I paid with cash were for Spring in Practice by Joshua White and Willie Wheeler (80¢), and the DVDs Fahrenheit 11/9 ($1) and Game Night ($2).
The most recent overdues I paid with a debit card (listed as “paid with credit card”) were back in 2013, and were for a variety of items that included a collection of short stories by Philip K. Dick.
Apparently I’ve paid $276.20 in overdue fines to DPL over the years, going back to 2010, but I’m not sure if that figure includes fines that were “cleared at [the] library’s discretion” or “billed in error.” Not that I care to add up the numbers, but I could if I wanted to.
It doesn’t sound like much, especially when spread out over ten years in amounts averaging about $1. But to someone working a part-time minimum wage job and weighed down by more urgent pending expenses, overdue fines could be prohibitive to taking advantage of a library’s resources.
As far as I know, DPL has always allowed you to extend items that are not overdue even if you have other items that are overdue (whereas the Wayne State University Library System will reject such renewal requests).
Quite logically, the rule that overdue items must be returned before checking out anything else remains firmly in place. Without that rule, it would be theoretically possible to empty out the library.
And also you still have to pay for the replacement of lost or damaged materials. But in the case of misplaced materials, I suppose you have a little more time to search for the misplaced item before giving up and paying to replace it.
Staffed libraries like DPL fill needs that Little Free Libraries just can’t. I doubt you will ever find any of the book titles I’ve mentioned today in a Little Free Library.
Or perhaps, just to contradict me, providence will find a way to place in a Little Free Library near me a copy of a book about that new and exciting computer programming language known as Fortran 95.
In a Little Free Library, you’re far more likely to find bargain bin rejects and literal, actual trash. You get what you pay for. Public libraries are paid for mostly by taxes, and to a lesser extent by foundations.
I doubt overdue fines were ever any significant or reliable source of revenue for the Detroit Public Library. In fact, Emma Keith reporting for the Detroit Free Press quoted a library spokesman saying that “overdue fines brought in about $30,384 last year, ... which only amounted to about 0.1% of the library's budget.”
Other fluctuations will probably have a bigger impact on the library’s budget than the loss of overdue fines. But, for all we know, Detroit has its own equivalent to Philip K. Dick, who now has one less expense to worry about.