Ditching library fines this winter resulted in the first circulation boost for the St. Paul Public Library system in years. Even library card registrations are up — while the number of overdue days has held fairly steady.

The true test, however, may come in the summer months, when teens and families tend to visit libraries in droves.

In January, the St. Paul Public Library canceled all late fines and unblocked 42,000 library cards, joining a small but notable wave of library systems around the country that have abandoned the time-honored tradition of penalizing patrons who return books past their due date.

“The library inherently is not a punitive place,” said Kim Horton, a spokeswoman for the Friends of the St. Paul Public Library.

Supporters called the decision an important step toward making a public system more inviting to low-income families. Critics worried about the loss of $215,000 in library revenue and predicted that books, films and music would be returned later than ever, if at all.

SMALL RESULTS ARE HUGE

The results? Without the benefit of a full summer’s worth of data, it’s probably too soon to tell conclusively — but early returns from an especially snowy winter shed some light on initial trends.

St. Paul Public Library director Catherine Penkert and the Friends of the St. Paul Public Library have been circulating a two-page analysis of fine-free data from January, February and March, and they’re encouraged by the findings. They included:

The library tracked circulation specific to the 42,000 patrons with formerly blocked cards. That group checked out 19,000 items — evidence that going fine-free actively drew them back to the library.

From January to March, circulation system-wide increased by a fraction of a percentage point — 0.06 percent, to be exact. That may not sound like a lot, but the numbers had been trending downward until then. The uptick represents the first circulation increase since a series of library renovations drew patron interest in 2015, and the first uptick since 2009 not attributable to a branch remodel or reopening. Overall, seven of 14 branches saw at least a 1 percent increase in circulation.

Two libraries in particular saw double-digit increases in circulation, and both are located in low-income, high-minority neighborhoods. Circulation at the Dayton’s Bluff branch went up 15.5 percent. Circulation at the Arlington Hills Library, also on the city’s East Side, went up 13.1 percent.

“With the proliferation of entertainment options facing people in 2019, even such cultural juggernauts as the Oscars or the Super Bowl have seen similar (downward) trends in recent years,” reads the analysis. “This is why any uptick is cause for celebration.”

Still just as bad about returning books as ever, but now instead of paying off the stack of fines every time it got big enough to freeze my account, I joined the Friends of the Library and pay my penance by direct deposit every month. — ALF (@Feznander) June 6, 2019

Not everyone, however, has been let off the hook. If a patron fails to return a book or CD after the library has made multiple efforts to get it back, they’ll shoulder replacement fees. And fee balances over $30 are sent to a collections agency, one that does not report outcomes to credit bureaus.

Tina Marie, a college student and mother of two, was surprised to discover this month that her late fines at the Dayton’s Bluff Library had been forgiven, even if her library account was still blocked for failing to return three children’s movies.

“I forgot we had them for so long,” Marie said. “I don’t have the money to pay for them.”

COPYING NETFLIX, NOT BLOCKBUSTER

Penkert noted the preliminary results overlap with a snowy winter “when the weather was terrible,” and one might otherwise expect more patrons to hold onto their materials longer or avoid the library altogether and stay indoors.

Instead, Penkert said the library system has not seen a significant increase in the wait times for materials on hold, or significant changes to the average number of days that materials are returned overdue.

“We are very pleased with this,” she said.

The library system already had some experience going fine-free, even before St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter announced last summer that he would push the initiative forward. Children’s books have been fine-free for at least 20 years, Penkert said. Most libraries throughout the country still levy fines, but the number of conscientious objectors that have abandoned fines is growing.

St. Paul City Council member Jane Prince, who chairs the city’s library board, said the council stood behind the decision to eliminate fines.

“When the library reopens to thousand of kids and adults whose cards were blocked, good things happen,” Prince said.

Since St. Paul gave up on fines, public library systems in Dallas, Denver and San Francisco have done the same, with Dallas officials in particular citing the precedent that St. Paul set as an example, she said.

Library officials say it’s time their industry began thinking differently, and Penkert pointed to the analogy of Netflix and Blockbuster video stores. Related Articles Sept. 30 is last day for public comment on Pigs Eye Lake makeover

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To grow its own business, Netflix — which launched in the late 1990s — studied the Blockbuster model and determined their late fines discouraged customers from returning. Rather than institute similar fines, Netflix created a mail-in video rental system where patrons could hold onto materials indefinitely, but they would have to return their video in order to access the next one.

For Paul Godfread, the St. Paul libraries going fine-free hasn’t changed much. He and his family are regular library users.

“I might keep a book a few extra days to finish it,” Godfread said. “But it hasn’t seemed like waiting for holds is significantly different.”