I've always liked libraries, and I've borrowed books, CDs and DVDs from my local libraries consistently for about 10 years. Unfortunately, I can also be a bit forgetful and at least once a year, I rack up a bunch of late fees when I forget to visit the library for a month or so. I don't mind paying the fines at all - it's my fault that I'm late returning their materials! But, it's always been very interesting to me that libraries have such different borrowing terms (including fines) for different types of items.
At the last two libraries that I used frequently (Abbot Library in Marblehead, MA and Saline District Library in Saline, MI), borrowing terms varied on the following set of attributes:
- Concurrent number of items
- Loan period
- Number of renewals
- Fine per day
- Maximum fine
- Checkout fee
At both of these libraries, the borrowing terms for DVDs are much more strict than the borrowing terms for any other type of media. At the Saline Library, when you compare DVDs to regular books, the concurrent item limit is lower (5 vs 30), the loan period is shorter (7 vs 28), and the daily fine is higher ($.15 vs $.50), but there isn't a difference in renewals or maximum fine. At the Marblehead Library, the differences are more extreme - when I lived there just two years ago, they charged a $1 checkout fee to "borrow" DVDs (which they must have since eliminated based on their website). Their concurrent item limit was lower (4 vs unlimited), the loan period was shorter (7 vs 14), the number of renewals was shorter (0 vs 2), the fine per day was much higher ($1.00 vs $0.10) and the maximum fine was higher ($6 vs $3).
Why are there such huge differences in the borrowing terms for DVDs?
I've asked a few different librarians and they come up with a variety of reasons:
- Videos used to be much more expensive to replace (remember when VHS tapes were $80!), and the high fines for DVDs carry on that legacy.
- DVDs require more maintenance (labor and equipment) than do books.
- They want them to be returned because they're in higher demand than books.
- Other libraries charge high fees.
What are the purpose of library fines?
It seems to me that many library policies aren't nearly as strategic as they could be. The purposes that I can imagine include:
- Punishment: People that abuse their privileges should by punished for negatively impacting other people in the community.
- Deterrence: People that know that there will be a fine will be less likely to bring items back late.
- Cost Recovery: People should pay for the overhead and inventory costs that their lateness creates.
- Fund Raising: The library should take advantage of mistakes to gather donations that can fund other activities.
- Persuasion: People should borrow books instead of DVDs or they should return their items sooner.
It seems to me that libraries could innovate a Netflix-like approach that would eliminate late fees AND increase circulation. Patrons could earn the ability to borrow more items (and other desirable privileges) by returning items faster. This supports the main goal of libraries - to promote intellectual curiosity and provide lifelong learning resources. It would also help catalyze community involvement by creating incentives for borrowing. The risk that the library would be exposed to would be low at first as the patron earned privileges and would grow only as patrons earn trust. There would be significant incentive for patrons to do exactly what libraries want, and none of the disincentive that can cause people to either stop using the library or develop negative feelings about the library. Like most businesses, libraries could use pricing approaches to directly support and enable their strategy.
Does this approach exist anywhere? Does it work?
