Phoenix Public Libraries have begun the process of eliminating all overdue library fees from open accounts as of as of November 18 after the City Council unanimously passed the “All Fines Forgiven” policy in a September policy meeting.
Phoenix has 17 libraries in Maricopa County, and over the past week, all 17 are waiving the current overdue fees that are in place.
City librarian Rita Hamilton and Deputy Director Management Services Martin Whitfield proposed the “All Fines Forgiven” program in the policy meeting on September 10. In the past, open library accounts were blocked when $25 or more is owed by the library customer. The policy today will eliminate all overdue fines and fees in the future and will waive any current fees that are holding customers’ accounts.
According to the American Library Association, “The Bottom Line: A Financial Magazine for Libraries”, states that “fees such as overdue charges, on the other hand, are based on the economic concept of opportunity cost.”
Whitfield said in the policy meeting that the Phoenix Public Libraries collected $200,000 a year from overdue fines and fees. To combat this, the Maricopa County Library District will contribute $170,000 to libraries while they implement the policy.
Although Phoenix Public Library is recently joining the national trend of eliminating overdue fees, library fees can be dated back centuries. In 1906, A Library Primer by John Cotton Dana was published. The primer described how the first six numbers of Public Libraries operated. In the primary, available to read on Google Books, there is a fine slip from The City Library Association, Springfield, Massachusetts, dated February 14, 1899. There is also an overdue fine slip issued by Dana from the same date, for two cents.
Over the past two months, the Phoenix Public Library has been preparing for November 18 date by initiating the final phase of the new policy.
The final phase, according to Director of Community Engagement at the Phoenix Public Library Geraldine Hills, was the IT Department of the Phoenix Public Library running the last few tests for the new fee-waiver program.
“We will run a program that will go through all of the card holders we have throughout our system and it’s encoded so that anybody who has overdue fines—those will be taken off of their account and zeroed out,” Hills said.
The City of Phoenix is one of the first cities in the United States to eliminate overdue fines and fees across all of their libraries. Back in September, Council Member Carlos Garcia of District 8 said the policy “made (his) week” in the policy meeting.
“I am excited that we are leading the country,” he said.
Hills said that the library’s main goal is still the same — work toward reducing the amount of people who have stopped going to the library and increase the usage of library materials.
According to the Phoenix Public Library website, the median amount of accounts blocked across all Phoenix libraries is 11%. The highest percentage of blocked accounts, at 15%, is at the Harmon Library located in Harmon Park while Desert Bloom Library only has 3% of accounts blocked. At the Burton Barr Library downtown, 12% of library accounts are blocked.
On the Urban Libraries Council’s website, there are 200 libraries in the nation that have only eliminated overdue fines for Children’s materials. Hamilton said the policy will remove all overdue fines and fees from over 100,000 open accounts because research indicates that there is no impact of the returning of materials when fines are in place.
Six days after the council passed the “All Fines Forgiven” policy, the San Francisco Public Library launched their program that removed overdue fines and fees on Sept. 16, 2019.
The library has a similar goals to the Phoenix program, stating on their website that the “move ensures that our public library is living up to its commitment to provide free and equal access to information, knowledge, independent learning and the joys of reading for our diverse community.”
According to the website, the San Francisco Public Library removed overdue fines on children’s materials in 1974. 55 years later, the library released a study in January 2019 to announce the library’s partnership with the City and County of San Francisco Treasurer and Tax Collector, José Cisneros, and proposed “The Financial Justice Project.”
The project, like the Phoenix Public Library Policy, aimed to increase the amount of usage of library materials to lower socioeconomic communities and remove any barriers that are preventing people from accessing the library.
In his opening letter of the study, Cisneros said overdue fines at equal rates affect “low-income communities, African American communities, and communities without advanced degrees” are that these communities are blocked from accessing the library the most.
“We hope this paper advances the dialogue and momentum needed advance these reforms, and serves as a resource to other jurisdictions,” Cisneros said.
On the San Francisco Public Library website, the study found that eliminating overdue fines for all ages “increased patron access to materials and services, reduction of the inequitable impact of overdue fines improved patron relationships with their library, (and) optimization of library staff time and increased staff efficiency.”
The Phoenix Public Library has launched the “All Fines Forgiven” policy, and has provided new guidelines on their website. A customer will receive a “Courtesy Notice” three days before an item is due, and will receive a max number of three “Overdue” notices if he or she does not return the item within 50 days. After 51 days, the customer will be issued a replacement bill.
For the current blocked accounts, however, the new system will not happen overnight. Hills said that the launched program will take a few business days for all fees and fines to be erased.
“It won’t be like push a button instantaneous,” she said. “It will take some time for the program to go through the cycle and go through that many records.”
Hills also said the new policy is based off of other libraries that have gotten rid of overdue fines and fees. Although their policy was based on other libraries finding, like the San Francisco Public Library, Hills said the Phoenix Public Library will continue to write their policies based off of data they find in the next few months.
In these next upcoming months, Phoenix community members will have access to library resources without the pressures of extra fines or blocked accounts due to the new policy.
“The policy is consistent with other policies. We are always going to write things specific to Phoenix Public Library but we certainly look at what other systems in the country are using. Like any industry, use best practices as your benchmark,” she said.
Lisa Diethelm is the Politics editor for the Downtown Devil while she studies at The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in downtown Phoenix. She grew up in California and started her journalism career in high school.
