The City of Phoenix will be the the first of the largest cities in the United States to eliminate overdue fines and fees in the Phoenix Public Library system.
City librarian Rita Hamilton and Deputy Director Management Services Martin Whitfield proposed the “All Fines Forgiven” program, which will eliminate overdue fines and fees, to the City Council. The council unanimously approved during the Policy meeting on Sept. 10.
In the meeting, multiple council members expressed their support of the proposition, including Mayor Kate Gallego.
“It is exciting to be the first of the largest cities to implement a fine free program. It puts Phoenix on a map we want to be on,” Gallego said.
During the presentation, Hamilton said that library accounts are blocked when $25 or more is due in overdue fines, and currently 10% of the libraries one million accounts is blocked.
The Burton Barr Central Library downtown has 12% of its accounts blocked, but Hamilton said the libraries in lower income areas of Phoenix have higher percentages of blocked accounts.
Because of the blocked accounts, people in lower income neighborhoods do not have access to their library’s resources.
“Recent studies have shown that those who experience higher financial uncertainty are disproportionately affected by overdue fines which often results in borrowing privileges being revoked,” Hamilton said in the meeting.
Overdue fines also act as a barrier to the public and prevents community members from using the materials available, according to Director of Community Engagement at the Phoenix Public Library Geraldine Hills.
“Families will come, and the children will use the materials here, but they won’t check them out and take them home because they are afraid of acquiring overdue fine fees,” said Hills. “So, again, we see it as a barrier to the public being able to have full use of the services of the library and that’s why we went to City Council…and proposed that we do away with overdue fines.”
There are approximately 100,000 libraries in the United States. In the meeting, Hamilton said that all 17 libraries in Phoenix would join 200 libraries throughout the nation with eliminating overdue fines and fees.
On the Urban Libraries Council’s website, they have reported that some of the 200 libraries have only eliminated overdue fines for Children’s materials. The Phoenix Public Library will eliminate overdue fines for everyone because, according to Hamilton, research indicates that there is not impact of the returning of materials when fines are in place.
“Overwhelmingly, library systems that have implemented fine free programs have seen both an increase in the return of materials and, more importantly, an increase in customers returning to the library in a fine forgiveness program is implemented,” said Hamilton.
In 2017 The Library Journal (LI) conducted a survey and collected 454 responses from libraries in the United States. Of those 454 responses, 8% reported that they had eliminated overdue fines. LI also reported that libraries still use fines because they support “tight budgets.”
But in the past five years in Phoenix, revenue from overdue fines has decreased “due to auto renewal of materials and the increased use of electronic materials which are automatically returned,” Whitfield said.
Whitfiled said that eliminating fines for everyone will have a minimal impact on the library’s $40 million budget. Last year, Whitfiled said, the library collected approximately $200,000 in overdue fines and fees, which is less than 1% of the total budget.
In addition, Whitfield said the Maricopa County Library District is contributing $170,000 to the library to cover revenue and encourage the no fine policy.
According to Hills, there are 100,000 accounts that have overdue fines and fees of the open one million accounts. The Phoenix Public Library plans implement the All Fines Forgiven program in November because the IT department must create a system that will waive overdue fines and fees on the 100,000 accounts.
“Our core mission is to connect people to the resources and the knowledge they are looking for in their life and we want to be as successful as possible,” said Hills. “Whether that you come in and you take something, whether you come into a class you go online or use any one of our resources that are available. We want to be successful to the public and we think this is going to help us do that.”
Contact the reporter at ldiethel@asu.edu.
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.
