51,000 library accounts were unblocked in Seattle today. We break down the numbers Jan 02, 2020 at 6:03 pm

Starting Thursday, Jan. 2, the Seattle Public Library will no longer charge fees for overdue books and other media.

And it's wiping away past fines for hundreds of thousands of patrons — meaning they'll be able to check out materials once again. These are people with fines of $15 or more. By the numbers, here’s what that means:

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Here's what that means for kids:

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Children and teens make up about 8 percent of all blocked accounts. The library told us that probably MORE kids haven't been borrowing books because their parents' accounts were blocked. Not everyone with fines had blocked accounts.

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Bringing the total fines cleared to $2.6 million. That's more than double what the library received in fines in 2018.

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Fines have been in decline since e-books and audiobooks have become more popular, as those don't incur fines. Why did the Seattle Public Library decide to do this?

For one, the library believes in access for all. But also, Seattle was able to forgive these fines because of the $219.1 million library levy passed last year:

Credit: KUOW

Seattle expects borrowing to increase this year. The city is looking at Chicago, where library fines were forgiven in September. They got thousands of books back from people with blocked accounts.