May 10, 2016
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| Carlos Cervantes reads "Plants vs. Zombies" as he waits to check out a second book at the 81st Avenue Branch Library in Oakland Calif., on Thursday, May 5, 2016. The Oakland Public Library has eliminated fines on all children's materials and will soon urge city officials to ban fines for all patrons. (Laura A. Oda/Bay Area News Group) |
OAKLAND -- As more low-income patrons find themselves shut off from their local library because of unpaid late fees, Oakland is looking to join the growing list of cities across the country that have eliminated the dreaded library fine altogether.
It's part of a national movement to bring more people back to the stacks and promote literacy.
An estimated 20 percent of patrons at the Oakland library are not allowed to check out books because they owe more than $12.50 in fines, which have ballooned to $3 million. Now the library wants to end fines, so long as materials are returned.
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| Oscar Bernal, a library aide, processes a book for Edward Arellano, 8, at the 81st Avenue Branch Library in Oakland, Calif. on Thursday, May 5, 2016. (Laura A. Oda/Bay Area News Group) |
"We think of our books as belonging to the community," said Gerry Garzon, head librarian at the Oakland Public Library. "That's who pays for them and, frankly, who they belong to."
Other cities that have done away with library fines include Topsfield, Massachusetts; Gadsden, Alabama; and Vernon, Illinois. In the Bay Area, the San Jose Public Library, where fines have soared to nearly $7 million and more than one-third of patrons are barred from checking out books, is considering an amnesty program to encourage residents to return.
The concept of the free library gained popularity in the 19th century after Andrew Carnegie, a steel magnate and philanthropist, built more than 1,600 public libraries around the country. The library was meant to be a place people could educate themselves, even if they came from humble beginnings -- a notion highlighted in the 1997 film "Good Will Hunting" where Matt Damon's character chides a pedantic Harvard student that some day he'll realize he spent $150,000 for an education "you could have got for a dollar fifty in late charges at the public library."
Now critics say fines are eroding that egalitarian commitment to education, as more and more people are being denied access.
"It tells people that it's pay to play," said Deborah Bonet, a library associate at the Richmond Public Library, which tried to do away with fines several years ago but could not garner enough support from the library commission. Many of Richmond Public Library's 80,000 patrons are low-income, move frequently and don't have Internet at home. "You don't really know how the fines affect them because you don't see them again," Bonet said.
Tyrone Weems, chairman of the library commission, defended the decision to maintain fines.
"We wanted to make people responsible for the books," he said. "We didn't want people to take advantage of the fact that they could just walk off with a book."
However, Weems said he has proposed reducing daily fine amounts to encourage people with excessive late fees to come back to the library. "A lot of people, once they don't return the book, they say, 'Well, I'm not going to go back to the library.' We want to change that."
Now the Oakland Public Library is wading into the same waters, concerned that fines are keeping people away from a vital community resource. The library, in conjunction with the city, has recently launched a study that will use mapping software to evaluate the connection between fines and access. Results aren't in yet, but Garzon believes it will confirm what librarians have long suspected: that people in East and West Oakland, where incomes are lowest, have lower rates of library use.
"It's been a long conversation and taken a number of years to get here," Garzon said. "It's costing us the same amount of money to keep track of fines and fees and collect them as the money we bring in."
Across the Bay Area, thousands of residents are cut off from libraries, because they can't afford or won't pay the fines. At the Richmond Public Library, 35 percent of patrons can't check out materials because of fines, one of the highest rates in the region. At the Contra Costa County Library, nearly a quarter of the 470,000 patrons find themselves in the same situation. And at the Livermore Public Library, around 23 percent of users are barred.
On a recent day, 9-year-old Zyianna Rivers waited to use the computer at the main branch of the Richmond Public Library because she doesn't have Internet at home. But she wouldn't be bringing any books home, she said, because she doesn't have a library card. She hasn't gotten one because she's terrified of having to pay fines.
"My sister had to pay like $40 (in fines), so I don't want the same thing to happen to me," said Rivers. "I'm afraid I'm going to lose a book or mess it up."
But not everyone agrees that abolishing late fees is the way to encourage more use of the public library.
"It's a delicate balancing act," said Jason Dickinson, a circulation services manager at the Berkeley Public Library, which serves 120,000 people. "We must provide at least some incentive for patrons to return materials in a timely fashion without unfairly limiting their access. ... A late or non-return of a book limits access to the next person who wants the book, so it is highly unlikely we will ever be able to do away with fines completely."
Some libraries say they give their librarians an option to override fines for children or forgive fines, on a case-by-case basis.
"Fines are always a concern, but we do work with our patrons to set up payment plans so they can use the library quicker," said Jessica Hudson, head librarian at the Contra Costa County Library system, where patrons are blocked from checking out books after they owe $10 or more in fines.
The library also turns over patrons who owe $50 or more to a collection agency if they haven't paid within 60 days, a common practice among libraries. But starting this June, outstanding fines that have been referred to collection agencies will not impact credit scores, part of new federal legislation meant to protect low-income residents.
Ultimately, removing fees means removing barriers to literacy, said Oakland Public Library's Garzon.
"Some people may have a problem with doing away with the police mentality of library books, but we feel it's much more important for our young patrons to become lifelong readers," Garzon said.
Source: The East Bay Times
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