5 ms·
It seems to me like the symbolic value of children's book late fees vastly outweighs any actual monetary incentives or benefits to the library. They're a lesson
by csande17 7y ago
It seems to me like the symbolic value of children's book late fees vastly outweighs any actual monetary incentives or benefits to the library. They're a lesson to kids that, yes, it's bad to break rules, but you don't have to feel anxious and guilty about it forever--if you make up for what you did by paying the fine, you're forgiven.
For this to work, though, the library has to walk a very thin line. The fines have to be large enough to feel significant to a child (setting them at $.01 would send the wrong message for sure), but also small enough that they'd never actually cause problems for a family trying to pay them. I don't know if it's possible to achieve this, especially in places with high income inequality.
- ars 7y agoThey can do this by adding a cap. Say max $0.50 fine per book, and max $10 per account. Then you are motivated to return the book, but if you mess up the fine is not so high as to be ruinous.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- Broken_Hippo 7y agoHow does this work for a 7 year old, with no income of their own and no means of transportation? Also, some folks are poor and simply could not afford the $10 without taking away from vital things, like food and electricity.
- tim333 7y agoWaive the fine if someone writes a note saying please erase my fine?
- dmd 7y agoThe knowledge that you can write a note like that, and the willingness to do it, are very strongly class-based.
- tim333 7y agoYou could put a poster saying it's the policy and maybe limiting it to say $5. The number of wealthy willing to write a letter to get off say a $2 fine would be small but it might be good for kids worried about their pocket money etc.
- cafard 7y agoYes, but with no means of transportation, how does the seven-year-old get the library book in the first place? Not that I think we should impose punitive fines on those who would have to scrimp to pay them.
- Broken_Hippo 7y agoI was able to walk to the library as a child, actually - plus some places have Bookmobiles. There were also libraries at schools. A kid's experience might vary with all of these, though: I also lived a 5-minute drive from a place with no free public libraries with the exception of a school.
- Broken_Hippo 7y agoThe bigger issue, to me, is that children have no source of income and aren't always in control of getting books back on time. Some families won't pay a $.10 fine. Some families won't make sure the child physically gets to the library to return books. If they are going to have fines, the least they can do is have ways the children can get around actually paying fines, but I also think it is more prudent to simply work around the fines and encourage folks to read and have access to library tools instead.