You’ll never have to do the walk of shame to the front door of the Van Buren District Library again, hauling in overdue books and facing those fearsome fines for your procrastination. The Van Buren District Library is now officially a fine-free zone.
The list actually grows longer every day. From the Sno-Isle Libraries in Washington’s Snohomish and Island Counties to Queen Anne’s County Library in Maryland, the number of libraries eliminating overdue fines is on the increase.
You might not have realized it, but since November 1st, Van Buren District Library (VBDL), which serves approximately 45,000 people in Van Buren County, has joined the ranks of the fine-free.
According to Library Director Dan Hutchins, “Library fines were originally intended to encourage people to bring items back so others might use them. However, the growing body of evidence suggests that assessing fines has the opposite effect and actually keeps people from using the Library.”
The debate over going fine-free is not new, however the discussions have become more frequent and more public over the past ten years. Articles in The Library Journal and American Libraries Magazine, and even on Slate.com, have begged the question, “To fine or not to fine?”
The definitive answer may have come from the American Library Association (ALA), which issued a resolution at its 2019 mid-winter meeting that states “The ALA, on behalf of its members, adds a statement to the Policy Manual that establishes that ‘The American Library Association asserts that imposition of monetary library fines is discriminatory in publicly supported institutions providing library and information services.’”
The resolution goes on to urge “libraries of all types to stop imposing fines on library patrons.”
Fortunately for Van Buren, overdue fines account for less than 1-percent of the District’s annual revenue. The elimination of such fees will not cause great stress on the annual budget. However, the District will continue to charge for items that are lost or damaged.
Van Buren District Library is headquartered in Decatur with branches in Bangor, Bloomingdale, Covert, Gobles, Lawrence and Mattawan.
