Discussion topic about Student fines

[Tammy]

Hi everyone I wanted to post a discussion topic about student fines to have a feel where most Media Specialist stand on this issue:

School library fines—should we charge them?


What are they supposed to accomplish?


Is it worth the effort?


Thank you for your opinion and your valuable insight :)

Thanks again and have a great day,

Tammy :)

[Pat Ropchan]

Hello,
We stopped collecting fines years ago because it was a full time job. I do believe there should be a consequence for overdue books (basically for being inconsiderate to others) so we don't allow any borrowing until the overdues are cleared up. Sending overdue notices (second notice) with the cost of the book helps get some books back. Then we email parents and finally charge for the book (after 2 months, would you believe!). Fortunately, our parents have school accounts so it is easy to do that.

I hope that helps.

Pat

[Bonnie Hauser]

I quit charging fines a few years ago. It just seems counterproductive to getting kids to read if I don't check out to them because they owe the library a few cents. Also, so many of my teachers require the students to check out a book and keep the books in class. They don't bring the books or kids in to renew, so kids were being charged fines through no fault of their own. Another problem was that students knew the book was overdue and they didn't have the money to pay the fine, so they kept the book, accruing more fines. They didn't realize that they could turn it in without paying at that time. Getting books back is not any better or worse since we stopped charging fines. If someone else wants the book, we send a notice and it generally comes back the next day. At the end of each semester we use the school's auto caller which sends out a recorded message to all the phone numbers of overdue students. That works the best, but it takes a lot of time so we only do it twice a year.