Daily Reporter
The Hancock County Public Library is considering doing away with its practice of turning its most delinquent accounts over to a collection agency. This is a good idea.
Library fines are always a tricky proposition. They certainly serve as a deterrent: No one wants to accrue fines of $1 a day on that “Star Wars” DVD that’s due at midnight, so you make sure to drop it off on the way home. The proper circulation of materials, after all, depends on their timely return by patrons.
But occasionally, the library has to deal with bad actors — or, perhaps more accurately, inattentive ones. Late fees start accruing: a dime a day for books and on up to $1 a day for digital offerings, such as DVDs or video games. They eventually add up: In the past year, about 300 patrons — out of total of about 30,000 cardholders — accumulated fines of at least $50, access services manager Cody Flood recently told the library board.
In the past, delinquencies that large were turned over to a collection agency, which took over correspondence with scofflaws that surely was more jarring than the friendly reminders they had received from the library.
But the thinking at the library is changing.
Flood, after making a few calculations, concluded that the fees charged by the collection agency — $10 per account — were increasingly hard to justify considering the amount that was being recovered.
Incalculable, however, was the effect on customer service, especially since many patrons learn of their delinquencies by — you guessed it — visiting the library to check out materials.
So, the library appears to be ready to re-commit to collecting these hard-case fees itself.
Assistant director Barb Roark said the library wants to work with patrons. In some cases, that will be a challenge. But this approach is certainly a lot better than onerously summoning an outside firm to collect relatively small sums.
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