Hey, there! Log in / Register
BPL wipes out late fines for kids in bid to boost their library use
By adamg on Fri, 10/25/2019 - 7:03pm
The Boston Public Library today said it is clearing outstanding book fines for library-card holders under 18 - and will no longer charge them late fees - effective Nov. 1.
In a statement, BPL President David Leonard said.
Too often, fines penalize those least able to afford them and have the unintended effect of turning young people, in particular, away from their libraries. That's just not what 'Free To All' should mean in the 21st century. Eliminating youth fines reflects core values of the BPL - to be accessible, to be welcoming, and to ensure we are promoting youth reading, not preventing it.
BPL collected some $24,000 in fines from teens and kids - but was owed a total of some $250,000 in late fees for books they'd taken out:
That data indicates that about 90 percent of BPL cardholders below the age of 18 are facing fines - and therefore barriers - to continued use of the Library.
The elimination of fines does not give younger readers carte blanche: They still have to return books, and will not be able to take out new books if they have late books outstanding, and will still have to pay for lost books.
Neighborhoods:
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
this seems
to make sense. i don't read the same books they do.
however
this is not exactly student loan debt we are talking about here--which is a systemic pyramid scheme used by congress to get rich off the myths about college.
this would seem to be more a character-building issue where one could take a harder line on the young. this is a public amenity you are being heedless with. I'm beginning to think maybe this was a little too damn soft. you are not going to boost literacy among people who do not have a very good relationship with books, and how those books fit in to a democratic society. stop cutting punks slack. I'm talking out both sides of my mouth but idgaf i changed my mind
It may be intended as
It may be intended as character-building, but in practice it doesn't work that way: if it did, 90% of young BPL users wouldn't have unpaid late fees. Wanting to keep a book longer isn't a sign of "a bad relationship with books."
I mostly use the Minuteman system, and being told "no, we don't want the fine" when I tried to pay a 15-cent fine while returning a book a few days late didn't encourage me to keep the books out longer. And five cents/day doesn't stop me from keeping a book for a few extra days in order to finish it. Not being allowed to borrow another book is a meaningful consequence.
Also, from the purely financial viewpoint, it's not worth paying library staff to process and track late fees, with time they could otherwise be using to answer questions, catalog, shelve books, and all the other things that librarians do behind the scenes.
Are they cutting any staff as
Are they cutting any staff as part of this initiative?
Can't let this go unchallenged
That's such BS. Congress does not get rich by students having student loans. That's just a complete lie.
it is not intended
as a lie. it is also impossible that there are not a number of members of the house and senate who do not benefit from younger generations' student loan debt.
it is not possible for it to be true that only 1 or fewer members of congress benefit from younger generations' student loan debt. this is American goddamnit--money has to get funneled upward by any means necessary, otherwise this would be Denmark.
Old man yells at cloud
This is just complete nonsense. Next thing you'll argue we should bring back corporal punishment as a way to "take a harder line on the young" and "stop cutting punks slack."
The library is there to encourage reading, and as they said in the article you clearly didn't read, or just failed to comprehend, most of these fines serve the exact opposite purpose.
On top of that, these fines only serve to make it harder for kids who are disadvantaged, who can't afford fines, who don't have easy access to the library, who have parents who don't think reading is important, or even kids whose parents just don't have time to take them to a library.
These are the kids who need access to a library the most, and yet are the most affected and discouraged by late fines.
I say bravo to the BPL for this.
then again
it's not like they are going to make off with As I Lay Dying or Shelby Foote's Civil War...they are probably reading young adult lit and graphic novels, stories about becoming a billionaire pop star overnight and other treacle...and while those don't have to be trash (of course there are a few YA gems/ perennials), they often are trash, written by resentful smarms, but that's not noticed because everyone likes them because everyone else is reading them (except nobody is reading anything really). rid the shelves of them knock yourselves out.
I respectfully disagree
There are plenty of thoughtful, well-written YA books out there. I read them regularly. I think they've actually gotten better than they were when I was that age. Of course, yes, there's plenty of garbage out there, but there's plenty of garbage in adult fiction too. And when it comes to kids, as far as I'm concerned, any reading is good reading.
No good deed goes unpunished
I think this is great! Any incentive large or small to encourage youth reading should be applauded not dissected. It’s not about punishing anybody it’s about cleaning the slate and starting fresh. Sometimes the hours buried in a good book can be the best hours of that day!
This is true, Lisnford
We've been in a golden age YA writing for about 20 years. And so many of the books that we now consider adult lit began as either YA or YA-adult crossover novels, like To Kill a Mockingbird and The Once and Future King.
If anyone interested in young adult books, I highly recommend hecking out the YA section of Book Riot, or the American Library Association YALSA division for good recommendations.
Maybe
I read plenty of adult books in high school, certainly not just YA books.
Punish honest kids
So the honest kids that paid their fines are punished for being honest. Next the MBTA will stop giving out citations for fare jumpers.
Next the MBTA will stop
Yeah, hopefully.
That idea was a failure in
That idea was a failure in NYC and San Francisco. Tolerating petty crime makes it exponentially worse as people push boundaries. Why pay a fare at all if no one else does?
Broken windows theory has
1.CITATIONS NEEDED!
1.CITATIONS NEEDED!
2. The MBTA will never be "free" we pay for it in taxes and that's why the legislators from central and western MA hate the agency. Their constituents pay for a service that they see no benefit from. This is why there should be a state wide public transportation agency and not all the various regional authorities which don't work well with each other. If there was a state wide agency it could be justified to eliminate fares because everyone would then be paying for access to a transportation agency that serves them.
Taxes flow west
You know that the eastern half of the state's taxes subsidize the western half, right?
Returning a library book late is not a "petty crime"
Nor is losing a library book. Not criminal. Not a crime.
Adam, can we please get an eyeroll emoji?
No one is being punished.
All kids will have the fine waived-- not just a few.
I don't know what's worse-- discouraging kids from reading by charging them fines, or an adult teaching kids to resent a rule change that benefits everyone. Both are pretty crappy.
Automatic Renewal
I'm surprised there are so many outstanding fines given that BPL books automatically renew themselves three or four times now before you are required to return them.