Do you want to know the secret? It’s an amazing one. I’m surprised more people aren’t aware of how easy it is to avoid certain kinds of costly fees when they’re in the habit of borrowing. Some people owe hundreds of dollars because of this. And it’s so easy to avoid it. How, you ask?
Return your books before they’re due
And there will be no fines for you.
How’s that for simple? But, WBBM 780 sees fit to announce that Chicago is *gasp!* increasing overdue book fees at their libraries.
One more cost will soon be going up for many Chicago residents and families.
Starting Jan. 1, the Chicago Public Library will double the daily fine for overdue library books to 20 cents instead of the current dime. If you return the book very late, you’ll face a top fine of $10 instead of $5. Lose a book and you’ll still have to pay the full replacement cost.
The doubling is the first fine increase proposed by the Chicago Public Library since 1991.
The new fine will be in the same range as other major urban library systems. The New York Public Library charges 25 cents a day, while the fee is 30 cents in Los Angeles and 15 cents in Seattle.
In this high tech 24/7 age we’re living in, there are fewer and fewer excuses for forgetting appointments and due dates. Overdue fines are totally avoidable. I’ll bet a cookie that library card holders in Chicago can use their website to check when items are due and renew pretty much everything. We can here in Saskatoon and our system is fucking archaic. I’ll bet they even have a phone number people can call to renew, too, if they have no computer and can’t get to a branch and do it in person. I’d also bet the library would be willing to give people holiday loan extensions once in a while, so they can get even more time to read what they borrow.
Looking at that site makes my own library seem pretty pathetic by comparison. I sure wish our IT boys had some design skills and better ideas for displaying what we’ve got.
Well, anyway. Check your due dates and return anything you’re done looking at before it costs you. There’s no reason in the world you should let yourself get caught owing money on something you got to borrow for free.
One Minion's Opinion 