As a long-time St. Paul resident and former director of the Washington County Library (2003-2015), I am writing in support of Mayor Carter’s proposal to eliminate daily overdue fines.

I urge the St. Paul City Council to support his proposal.

I urge all public libraries in the metro area to consider the same policy.

The mythology surrounding daily overdue fines is clearly debunked by looking at the experience of Washington County Library (WCL) and its associate city libraries in Stillwater and Bayport.

WCL does not charge daily overdue fines. Yet, library materials are returned at the same rate as other libraries in the surrounding area. The “loss rate” is about the same too.

WCL routinely considered the imposition of daily fines but the cost to hire additional staff to handle payments and users was about the same as the revenue generated by such fines. Fines were simply not revenue generators. The negative impacts on users would have made starting fines not worth the effort.

Library fines have been created primarily to enhance revenue, not to ensure proper use of the library. Library fines have not ensured that materials are returned.

Fines are a barrier to teens and to the poor in using the library, as the Public Library Association found many years ago.

Eliminating fines will free up staff time to be used more constructively in helping users, and it will change the dynamic “at the front desk” to a much more positive interaction.

If libraries truly want to reach out to the underserved, the poor, the illiterate and the young, the first step is to eliminate daily overdue fines. Otherwise libraries are fooling themselves and the public.

Patricia Conley, St. Paul

LESSONS OF RESPONSIBILITY

Thank you, Joe Soucheray, for your ever-on-the-mark comments re St. Paul Mayor Carter’s beneficence in cancellation of the library late fees, and plan to add $215,000 to the city’s real estate or other taxes.

Are St. Paul libraries not already supported by taxes? And now you want to add more to the public’s burden?

What happened to the old theme I refer to as “use it (follow the rules) or lose it ( the privilege”)?

In my long-ago years of growing up and loving the opportunity to venture into this quiet place where I could study the shelves of books, and have available to me FOR FREE any book I wanted. All I had to do was show my beloved (and almost sacred) library card, and promise to return the book in the same shape by the date stamped on the card in the back jacket of the book, usually two weeks … or else!

Early on, the penalty was 10 cents a day. There was a place in the back of the book that would hold a card letting you know the date the book had to be returned. The big deal was to remember where I put the book. Ten cents was lot of money when you were 9 or 10 years old.

So today, where and how are the lessons of responsibility, honesty, care of property (books), and consideration of others taught? $215,000.00 is a lot of money that can certainly be more useful in other areas, not taken from the already well-taxed pockets of St. Paul residents.

Phyllis Brody, Lilydale