During the pandemic, many Lehigh Valley libraries waived the fines on overdue books to stop the spread of germs and keep sick people home.
But now, the libraries in the Lehigh Carbon Library Cooperative, which includes Emmaus, Catasauqua, Coplay, Dimmick, Lehighton, Lower Macungie, Palmerton, Parkland, Slatington, Southern Lehigh and Whitehall, are considering getting rid of late fees for good.
About 11 libraries in Berks County are also looking to go fine-free. The libraries have started a six-month pilot program to collect data to present to their boards for permanent consideration.
“I think the original intent [of the fines], many decades ago, was to teach responsibility,” said Maryellen Kanarr, director of the Emmaus Public Library. “That’s not quite our mission. We are focused on community and sharing. Really, our mission is literacy, lifelong learning.”
In recent years, libraries across the country have ended overdue book fines, which librarians say have a large impact on low-income patrons. The Philadelphia Free Library became fine free in February 2020, and at the time had 88,000 cardholders unable to access the library resources because of outstanding fines. Libraries in San Francisco and Baltimore also abolished fees.
In 2019, the American Library Association passed a resolution saying fines are “a form of social inequity” and libraries should eliminate overdue fees. In the American Library Association policy statement on Library Services to the poor it states: “it is crucial that libraries recognize their role in enabling poor people to participate fully in a democratic society,” including “Promoting the removal of all barriers to library and information services, particularly fees and overdue charges.”
The initial late fee may seem low, such as just 25 cents per day, but it adds up and has ramifications, Kanarr said. Once the fines reach a maximum — $5 at the Emmaus Public Library — cardholders are blocked from checking out more books or using digital resources such as computers. Kanarr said in some cases people may just stop using the library.
The Emmaus library suspended late fees when the pandemic started. The policy continued as more people faced job losses and financial difficulties, Kanarr said.
Those were the same reasons the Lower Macungie Public Library halted late fees, said Kathee Rhode, executive director.
The libraries still charge for missing or damaged books, but as long as the book eventually comes back, there is no cost to the patron. Ending late fees also allowed people during the pandemic to search for jobs on the computers or escape from the stress of the real world with a book.
“Isn’t that what we’re here for — to serve the community?” Rhode said. “Why are we spending time and energy calculating what people owe to the library? It’s not our mission. Our mission is to provide materials, free access.”
Libraries will lose revenue if overdue fees go away, but officials say it’s a small amount. Emmaus may be looking at losing $3,500 in revenue, but Kanarr said it will not have a large impact on the overall budget. She expects the money to be made up in fundraising and donations.
In 2020, Emmaus’s fine receipts totaled $2,904 and was less than 1% of the library’s total revenue. At Lower Macungie Library, fines for 2020 totaled $4,633, or 0.58% of its yearly revenue.
Bethlehem Area Public Library, one of the largest in the area, doesn’t have any plans to abolish late fees, but Director Josh Berk said the library has lowered fines on DVDS to 25 cents a day. At a fine previously of $1 per day, DVDs were often the culprit of large overdue fees.
“We really don’t want fines to be a barrier to people using the library,” Beck said.
Allentown Public Library reinstated overdue fees in late 2020 with some adjustments to costs and loan periods. At the moment, the library plans to keep the fines and “see what the future holds,” director Renee Haines said via email.
Because all of the libraries in the Lehigh Carbon Library Cooperative share policies and cards, there must be a unanimous decision among all of the libraries in the group to get rid of overdue fines, said Mark Sullivan, district consultant librarian. If one library board does not approve it, the rest will be unable to abolish the late fees. Sullivan said since patrons can use all of the libraries in the cooperative, they want the same rules at all the libraries.
But Sullivan said this policy could benefit libraries long-term.
“We want the maximum number of people in the community to be able to use library resources,” Sullivan said. “The success of a library is not based on the amount of revenue they take in every year. The success is based on how much the library is used.”
In Berks County libraries, children’s books have been fine-free for awhile, said Amy Resh, administrator for Berks County Public Libraries. Library officials there felt it wasn’t fair to punish children who were at the whims of their parents’ schedules or wanted to read “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” one more time.
Resh perhaps summed up how many libraries are feeling with fine-free policies.
“We kind of just want to take that burden off of people,” she said. “We don’t want to have people feel negatively about libraries.”
Morning Call reporter Clare Fonstein can be reached at cfonstein@mcall.com.
