America's Biggest Library System Scraps All Late Fees

All prior New York Public Library fines have been erased
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 7, 2021 6:50 PM CDT
America's Biggest Library System Scraps All Late Fees
In this July 1, 2020, photo, a face mask covers the mouth and nose of one of the iconic lion statues in front of the New York Public Library Main Branch in New York.   (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)

Late fees are now a thing of the past at the nation's largest public library system. The New York Public Library system says late fees have been eliminated forever and all prior fines, including the replacement cost for lost items, have been cleared from the accounts of library card holder, NPR reports. Late fees were suspended when the pandemic hit New York last year, and the change is now being made permanent. Under the old system, library cards were suspended and access to libraries was revoked when a card holder racked up more than $15 in unpaid fees, but the NYPL president says the system was "an antiquated, ineffective way to encourage patrons to return their books," the BBC reports.

"For those who can afford the fines, they are barely an incentive," Anthony Marx said. "For those who can't afford the fines—disproportionately low-income New Yorkers—they become a real barrier to access that we can no longer accept." As New York deals with inequities worsened by the pandemic, "we must ensure that we are adhering to our mission of making knowledge and opportunity available to all," Marx said in a statement. He said almost a third of the 400,000 blocked cards citywide belong to patrons under 18.

The library system, which collected around $3.2 million in fines in 2019, says it has found ways to compensate for the lost revenue, the Washington Post reports. Officials say that while old replacement fees have been cleared from accounts, patrons will still be charged for lost books and other materials in the future. Other systems have already eliminated fines, including the Chicago Public Library, which saw in increase in returned materials after it scrapped fines in 2019, NPR notes. (More New York Public Library stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X