[Publib] Fee/Lost Charge Negotiation

[Catharine Cook]

At the Chickasha (Oklahoma) Public Library, we allow customers to work off
any extended use fees (overdues) at the rate of $6.00/hour with a one-hour
minimum.  If the customer is a child, his parent must accompany him and he
cannot work for more than one hour at a time.

 

The most usual task for the able-bodied is to pack boxes of gift books for
the next Friends sale.  For kids, it's usually dusting shelves.  

 

We don't have too many people accept this offer, but it gives the staff an
alternative to suggest when a customer is hopping up and down about a big
fee and threatening to never use the Library again, and swearing that he
never received an overdue notice and so on.  

 

As for waiving fees, it depends on the story.  A good old "My sister died
last month and my husband and I are just now clearing out her house and we
found these books." usually works for me.  The "I didn't check these out and
someone else must have used my card." doesn't.  We don't waive lost book
charges and I rarely accept a replacement copy.

 

In December, we sponsor "Food for Fines" month.  Any extended use fee can be
paid with the donation of a non-perishable food item.  Last year about 485
long-lost books found their way home and we had 35 boxes of food to donate
to our local food bank.  And we had lots of provisions in case we got snowed
in - soup, mac & cheese, brownie mix...

 

 

Catharine Cook

Director

Chickasha (Ok.) Public Library

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.webjunction.org/wjlists/publib/attachments/20061204/218b2008/attachment.htm