Greater Sudbury Public Library the latest in the north to drop late fees | CBC News

You no longer have to pay if you bring a library book back late in Greater Sudbury.

The library did away with fines on a temporary basis at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but as of November it has  made the change permanent.

It follows a trend at other libraries in northeastern Ontario and across Canada..

Brian Harding, the library’s CEO and chief librarian, said the COVID-19 pandemic forced libraries to o away with late fines, which were historically an incentive to get people to return materials, such as books and DVDs, on time.

“We had to quarantine materials when they were returned to us. So literally any book that came back to us, we had to put in a separate area for seven days and let it sit there,” Harding said.

“And that created real logistical issues for us processing materials. Patrons would accumulate late fines as those materials were sitting in quarantine.”

To make things fair to all patrons, the Sudbury library did away with late fees early in the pandemic, but it was only supposed to be a temporary measure.

Harding said that three-year experiment, which occurred at libraries across Canada, showed that late fines didn’t make an appreciable difference in encouraging people to return library materials on time.

He added the fines also created barriers for many people, and even scared some potential patrons away from the library because they owed it money.

“What we’ve heard from patrons is that there’s a sense of shame or embarrassment involved in accumulating light late fines and we don’t want our patrons to have that experience at all,” Harding said.

“That’s not what the library is about, in making people feel bad. Our job is to help people and to provide services and resources to them.”

While there are no longer late fines at the Greater Sudbury Public Library, patrons are still asked to pay for damaged or lost items. 

If someone keeps a book for a long period of time, Harding said the library will send several notifications asking if they can return it, or request they purchase the book if they wish to keep it.

“We understand that we need to be better at communicating to the users what, what the timelines are for their item,” he said. “And so we are going to be increasing the notifications that we give to our patrons.”

No late fines in Espanola

At the Espanola Public Library, west of Sudbury, late fines were permanently dropped last year.

“The public appreciates it,” said library CEO Rosemary Rae.

“We have increased our membership, we have increased our circulation to almost pre-pandemic levels once again.”

Rae said ending late fines hasn’t made a big difference in people’s behaviour when they borrow an item from the library.

“It’s pretty much followed the pattern previous to COVID, to be honest,” she said.

“Those that are going to keep items for six months are going to keep items for six months, whether there’s a $10 fine on it or not.”

But Rae said most people appreciate that library materials are paid for by taxpayers and try to respect the due dates as much as possible.