[Publib] Paying off fines, recalcitrant machines, and a memoir or two

[Linda Ballard]

We allow people to check out as long as any fines on their record are
below $5.00 and those fines are under 6 months old.   If someone who
hasn't been in for awhile shows up and owes $2.68 from last July, we ask
them to pay it off in full - if they can't at that moment (having
forgotten that they owed anything and not having any money with them),
we allow them to check out but warn them that they must pay next time.
A special message, "Patron must pay fines" is put on their record and we
don't override the money owed a second time.  We have 30,000+ patrons
and if each one of them was allowed to "carry" $4.99 indefinitely, that
would represent over $150,000 in lost revenue.  But I must admit that we
were really driven to this by that old bugaboo of policy-making that has
been discussed here lately, "the tyranny of one.  A few extremely
annoying patrons would NEVER pay off below $4.99, in fact seemed to
positively delight in having *exactly* $4.99 owed on their records, and
their "you can't make me, nahnahnah!" attitude really made some of our
circ staff apoplectic.  It was in some respects a staff mental health
issue.

 

As to computers, printers, and even staplers failing at critical moments
and having minds of their own, this obviously carries over to home life
where an "appliance virus" can sweep through the house taking out the
dishwasher, washing machine, and vacuum faster than a 24 hour flu clears
out a preschool.  Usually occurs when you're expecting company and/or
just prior to a major holiday.

 

Memoirs:   Susan Toth's "Blooming:  A small-town girlhood," set in Ames,
Iowa, and, further afield, "The road from Coorain," Jill Ker Conway's
girlhood in the Australian Outback, both of which were very popular when
they came out.

 

 

Linda V. Ballard

Director, University City Public Library

6701 Delmar Blvd.

University City MO 63130

314.727.3150; fax, 314.727.6005

 

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