Linn Benton Community College Library is proposing assigning fines on overdue books, starting fall 2012. This is warranted due to the number of books not returned in a timely fashion by students, especially the reserved items.
Return the books and avoid this new feature.
Return the books and avoid this new feature.
The reserved items will have a $2.00 a day fine up to $10.00 maximum, then the student will be billed the cost of the replacement of the item, which can be costly. Due to the demand and cost of reserved items, this policy will hopefully cause students to return the items so that others may use them.
Items from the regular library stacks, everything but reserved, will be fined 25 cents per day until the $10 maximum limit. If not returned by the student, there will be a replacement cost of no more than $30.
According to the library's new policy, “Students may attain a fine level of $10 from any combination of items, at which point they will be billed a non-refundable fee of $10. Fines will continue to accrue and students will be billed the balance upon the return/replacement of the item.”
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| Bryan Miyagishima works diligently at the library |
Students will be notified in many forms, especially email when they have a fine.
“When a patron is billed for a long overdue/lost item, an additional $10 processing fee per item will be added to their bill,” said Bryan Miyagishima, Reference and Instruction Librarian.
When asked how big the problem of books not being returned on time, causing the fines, Miyagishima stated that it is not that there is a terrible amount of books not being returned, but that every late book can cost both the library and the business office quite a bit of staff time to track down items, contact the patron, bill for late materials, send the bill to the business office, cancel the bill when the item is returned, etc.
Per Miyagihima, this is a pretty inefficient process on our part but with our new policy, we can promote a culture of getting books back on time in the first place.
When asked how big the problem of books not being returned on time, causing the fines, Miyagishima stated that it is not that there is a terrible amount of books not being returned, but that every late book can cost both the library and the business office quite a bit of staff time to track down items, contact the patron, bill for late materials, send the bill to the business office, cancel the bill when the item is returned, etc.
Per Miyagihima, this is a pretty inefficient process on our part but with our new policy, we can promote a culture of getting books back on time in the first place.
These fines will be carried from term to term and year to year. However, if the student’s fines have not reached the $10 maximum when they leave LBCC, their fines will be purged and forgiven automatically with deletion of their library account.
The amount of fines was established through pure mathematics, according to Miyagishima, as 25 cents per day is reasonable and waiting 40 days with a maximum charge of $10.00 more than reasonable. With the reserved items, 5 days late at two dollars day is in line with other college libraries, as well as the policy to bring in cans of food, which should be an undue burden on the student.
The good point of this is “once a term (generally, late in the term), the library will offer a grace week, where patrons may have their fines forgiven by donating two cans of food if their fine is less that the $10 maximum.
" I am surprised there was not already a penalty for overdue books. I think it is completely acceptable to impose fines for overdue items, and ten dollars is a very reasonable maximum. Any student that uses the library will be introduced to the "real world" idea of fines and penalties. It seems to be a method of not only teaching timeliness and responsibility, but also facilitates the availability of library resources and provides additional funding for improvements and upkeep, " stated Henry Winowiecki, a student at LBCC.
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The amount of fines was established through pure mathematics, according to Miyagishima, as 25 cents per day is reasonable and waiting 40 days with a maximum charge of $10.00 more than reasonable. With the reserved items, 5 days late at two dollars day is in line with other college libraries, as well as the policy to bring in cans of food, which should be an undue burden on the student.
The good point of this is “once a term (generally, late in the term), the library will offer a grace week, where patrons may have their fines forgiven by donating two cans of food if their fine is less that the $10 maximum.
" I am surprised there was not already a penalty for overdue books. I think it is completely acceptable to impose fines for overdue items, and ten dollars is a very reasonable maximum. Any student that uses the library will be introduced to the "real world" idea of fines and penalties. It seems to be a method of not only teaching timeliness and responsibility, but also facilitates the availability of library resources and provides additional funding for improvements and upkeep, " stated Henry Winowiecki, a student at LBCC.
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| Andre Armattoe takes sometime to hit the books at the library.
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At A Glance:
Fines!!!
Reserved items- $2 a day until maximum of $10.00 or replacement cost of item
Stack items- 25 cents a day up to maximum of $10.00 or replacement up to $30.00
Grace Period- bring in 2 cans of food once a year to eliminate fines less than $10.00
541.917.4645 / libref@linnbenton.edu
Hours:
To contact the library:
General Library Information
Checking out / Renewing Materials
Circulation Desk - 541.917.4638
Reference Desk General Library Information
Checking out / Renewing Materials
Circulation Desk - 541.917.4638
541.917.4645 / libref@linnbenton.edu
Hours:
Monday-Thursday
8:00am to 6:00pm
Fridays
8:00am to 2:00pm
8:00am to 6:00pm
Fridays
8:00am to 2:00pm
Closed on Weekends
References:
Oregon State University fines and penalities/http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/borrowing/fines
University of Oregon library fines and penalities/http://libweb.uoregon.edu/borrowing/index.html
References:
Oregon State University fines and penalities/http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/borrowing/fines
University of Oregon library fines and penalities/http://libweb.uoregon.edu/borrowing/index.html
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