

Los Angeles Central Library (Photo by Neil Kremer Follow via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr)

If you've been avoiding your local library because you owe them money, it's time to rekindle your relationship.

The Los Angeles Public Library will absolve your late fees if you return your overdue books and media between February 1-14. Your items must be undamaged, and can be returned to either the circulation desk or placed in the book drop at any of the LAPL's 73 branches. And just like that, your balance will be set to zero. You may also return materials for others if you have them on you, or if you're an authorized user or sponsor of that person's library account.

The library will also clear your old fines for materials you previously returned, hold-shelf expired fees, as well as fees on TechKiosk devices that were not returned on time on checkout day. However, those fines will not be cleared if you took the TechKiosk device out of the building.

You can also get a new library card for free if you lost yours.

Fines that will not be cleared include fines on any materials that are not returned, fines on items that have been damaged, fines on items from other library systems or the $15 fee from Unique National Collections, a library collections agency. The latter fee can't be cleared by LAPL because it comes from a different agency. You also can't get a refund on fines you've already paid. You may choose to replace a lost item with approval from a librarian. In that case, the lost fee as well as the processing fee will be cleared. Find more information here.