GREENFIELD — Library patrons who incur late fees of $50 or more will receive more notices from the library about their charges in the future — but those delinquent accounts might not be sent to a collection agency much longer.
The Hancock County Public Library Board of Directors, which oversees the main library in Greenfield and the Sugar Creek Branch in New Palestine, had a first reading Tuesday on the topic of ending the library’s contract with Unique, a collections agency, in an effort to save money and improve customer service for patrons with late fees. The board will vote on the measure at its December meeting.
The change is considered as the library system prepares for the opening of the new Sugar Creek branch location, on which construction is about 80 percent complete, officials said Tuesday. Director Dave Gray said the library, which has the 13th-largest circulation in the state despite being the 25th-largest service area, only expects more growth — and more patrons who deserve quality customer service — in the decade to come.
In the past, the library had turned over to the collection agency delinquencies of at least $50, said access services manager Cody Flood. The library waited 45 days before taking that action, he said.
However, his research into the results of sending patrons to collections suggests there’s no evidence that it produces a quicker response by patrons in paying those late fees, he said at Tuesday night’s meeting. Of the library’s 30,000 card-holding patrons, fewer than 300 were reported to collections in the last year, Flood said.
He said patrons learn of late fees more often by stopping by the library, rather than receiving a letter from the collections agency.
And the process of sending a client to the collections agency costs an additional $10, Flood said. He suggested the library instead handle large late fees itself, by sending several more notices, either by mail, text message or email. He said by keeping those efforts to get late fees paid off internally, the library will save money in the long run.
The library’s automatic notification system can already let patrons know their items are overdue, so it makes sense to just do it themselves instead of paying a collections agency to do the same thing, Gray said.
Furthermore, he said, he believes it will improve the library’s customer service; no patron is happy to learn their $50 late fee bill has been forwarded on to a collections agency.
Library assistant director Barb Roark said in 2016, the Indiana State Board of Accounts took much of the bite out of reporting those large late fees to a collections agency. The board of accounts, which provides oversight of state and local government in Indiana, ruled that libraries could not disclose delinquent accounts to credit reporting agencies, she said.
Roark said the library works with clients whenever possible to make things good between them, but the most important thing is getting the items — whether it’s a book, DVD or tablet — back into the library’s circulation.
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30,000: Approximate number of card holders at Hancock County Public Library.
300: Approximate number of delinquent accounts — those that owe $50 or more in fines — that were turned over to a collection agency in the past year.
Source: Hancock County Public Library
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