Crack down on scofflaws
by: Jessica Heslam
With the crippled economy forcing more Bay Staters to dust off library cards, local lending institutions are throwing the book at overdue scofflaws, turning them over to the cops and courts in a hard-nosed bid to collect fines and recover costly tomes and DVDs.
“The value of the materials is fairly high. We need to replace them,” said Martha Holden, director of the Peabody Institute Library, which has sent the law after a trio of overdue culprits.
The Peabody library filed criminal complaints against 19-year-old Alyssa Toste and 23-year-old Jeramie Crane on Dec. 15. Despite repeated notices, both Toste and Crane failed to return more than $500 worth of overdue books, DVDs, music CDs, books on tape and other items, Holden said.
Toste and Crane did not respond to requests for comment.
Some of the overdue items were taken out recently while some go back a year or two, said assistant library director Gerri Guyote.
The pair have been summoned to appear at a hearing before a clerk magistrate for failing to return library materials. A criminal complaint was filed more than a month ago against a third library member who’s been hoarding $1,000 worth of coveted library material.
It’s the first time Holden has turned to the criminal justice system for help. “It’s the responsibility I feel like I have to other borrowers and taxpayers,” Holden said. “It’s money the taxpayers put aside to purchase materials.”
The severe steps to retrieve borrowed materials comes as cash-strapped public libraries statewide are busier than ever.
Bay Staters borrowed 57 million items from libraries in fiscal 2009, up from 54 million in fiscal 2008, according to Celeste Bruno, spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners. Meanwhile, state aid to libraries dropped to $6.8 million in fiscal 2010 from nearly $10 million in fiscal 2009.
“They want their materials back. The idea behind libraries is that community ownership saves us all money,” Bruno said. “When people don’t return their items, they’re keeping it from the rest of the library community and residents.”
In Westminster, the Forbush Memorial Library also is turning to the men in blue to track down wrongdoers. Just before Thanksgiving, director Margaret Howe-Soper gave police the names of nine people who have owed between $50 and $300 in library items for “many, many months.”
The cops called them or hand-delivered letters from the library to their doorsteps. So far, four accounts have been settled in full while two others are paying it down slowly, Howe-Soper said.
And for the first time in a decade, the library will begin charging late fines next year.
The economy has more people borrowing new books and job-search tomes, Howe-Soper said. “Instead of going to the movies, they’re borrowing DVDs,” she said.
Howe-Soper said the library can’t afford to keep replacing overdue books and other items.
“We’ve had budgets cuts. The town is very much in need of all the funds it can get,” she said.
Some libraries aren’t turning to the legal system just yet.
“We trust our customers to return them,” said Boston Public Library spokeswoman Mary Bender.
from: Boston Herald
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