If you’ve been around a while, you know I have a fear of public libraries. Not of what they are, but of my own tendency to lose books or forget to return them for weeks months years on end.
But as I worked on my book manuscript over the past few months, my feelings of dread were mostly replaced with warm-fuzzies.
Y’all, when you need a place to work without distraction and without feeling obligated to buy really expensive cups of coffee, the local library is the perfect place to go. I spent day after day in ours.
So many days that I finally took a big risk and checked out a book for my son. He wanted to read it, but was way down the list to check it out at his school library.
I shoved down my panic, knowing I was coming every single day and that my chances of remembering to return this book were significantly higher than usual.
I walked to the Counter of Shame and told them I was sure I had a fine.
I did.
It was $25.
A sufficiently embarrassing fine, don’t ya think? And yet, still, I felt warm fuzzies.
All that time in the library let me see how vital it is for our community. How vital it is for every community. I didn’t even know we had homeless people in our town, but we do. They get warm and spend time learning and bettering themselves every single day in the library.
As someone who has an Internet Presence, I forget there are those who don’t have access to the internet. But I saw people, young and old, in the library everyday, using the computers to take classes and apply for jobs and improve their lives.
I also know that as a young mom in a new town, the first friends I made were the ones I met at preschool storytime. (Though I purposefully avoided those noisy times when working on my book.)
I know. I’m mostly just getting sentimental. But even though I didn’t like writing a check for $25 to pay fines on things that could have been free, I was happy that the money was going for a very good cause. A cause I had personally benefited from for months.
Not that I’ve decided I can afford library books after all. I really can’t. I stopped checking out books for my son a few weeks before my manuscript was due because I couldn’t be ABSOLUTELY sure I’d be there every single day when he was done with it.
And I’m most excited that I can now check out books on my Kindle since I’m fine-free. You can’t even check out Kindle books if your KIDS have fines. Kindle books don’t get late fines, they just disappear from your Kindle!!
I am hoping that my future financial support will come from donations of books for their annual book sale. That sounds much better than $25 fines, don’t you think?
--Nony
What a perfect post for me since my kids want to go to the library and I keep putting it off because of the fines that I have
I decided a long time ago that the fines are actually cheaper than buying all those books, so I just pay up and nevermind about it.
Ditto. Since I decided to use the library whenever possible instead of buying books, I’ve paid way less in fines than I would have on purchases, and I own fewer books (not cluttering the house). Even when I have fines, I am happy to pay because they are supporting the library. Win-win-win! 🙂
Hang in there, Nony. I am a librarian, and I rack up fines. I pay them off at about $20, when our library stops providing services. The more often you go, the less likely you are to have something late. (And our library has a monthly amnesty day, which you might ask about. Late books are not fines on that day! Yea, me!)
I set a reminder in my phone before I leave the checkout counter to ring 5 days, 3 days, 2 days, 1 day before, and every 15 minutes when I’m not at work on the last day I can return without being late.
And a reminder the day after too.
The thing with reminders in my phone is I don’t have to remember to look at the calendar. Or find the calendar… The calendar in my phone finds me and announces there’s something I need to pay attention to.
I’m with you! Only I haven’t learned my lesson. It SHOULD be so easy. I can renew online for Petes sake! I did ban myself from 1 week rentals like movies. Also, I’m amazed your library issues handwritten receipts!
The only fix for this aberration is to stop checking out books. I’m guilty, too.
Thank you for writing this today —-I have been feeling incredibly guilty. Over the summer, we had gone to the library, and took out a bunch of books (like 6!). I was able to return what I thought was all of them — only to find out the following week, that we missed 1! I found that book a few weeks ago (somehow in the linen closet, between sheet sets! Don’t ask – no idea!) Have I returned that book yet?! ugh— I feel horrible, plus I know I have that stupid fine! Which I am sure, is over $25!
I just need to get over there and bring it and just pay the dumb fine. I, like you, cannot afford library books!
Heh. I don’t borrow books at the library anymore, either. I love the library. I’ve even worked, part-time, at a library. But I’m not physically able to bring books back, in time, so I’ve not used my excellent public library in about 15 years. ( I occasionally use the one at work, but it’s literally a few floors lift ride to be able to dump things 24/7 and I don’t bring those books home, so it’s easier.)
I’ve paid my fines over the years with, well, not pleasure, but acceptance, and I know by now that it’s a “me” thing: it wouldn’t help to set reminders, put the bag easily reachable (ahaha!) or try to change *me*. I’m just not wired for reading at a schedule.
For me, it’s about the gap between reading for pleasure and reading as a chore. If I think I HAVE to read something by a date, I resent that book, no matter how much I want to read it, I get antsy, and avoid it. The same happens with knitting, or any other hobbies. If I set a date, I don’t enjoy it as much and it feels like duty, not pleasure.
For me, the language thing happened, as well, in my student years. I most often read in English, rather than my mother tongue, and English books are more readily available in bookstores (or a e-books) than in the library.
Speaking of – is there a Nony book coming soon? I’m really looking forward to the next one. I’ve had a lot of joyous help from your previous ones, and am guessing the next one will be lovely as well. I
n my daily life, your 5 minute pick-up ritual is the one thing that truly helps me. I have always got 5 minutes. There’s no perfection to be had in 5 minutes, but a lot of peace.
I have spent hundreds of dollars on fines in my life so far. This frustrates me, but it’s still cheaper than it would have been to buy all of those wonderful books! It should cost nothing though so still frustrating…
I remember one day when I was at the counter paying a fine. A young child saw me and said ”You have to pay to borrow books?!” and I looked sheepishly and replied “No…” 🙁
I had to laugh at this because I always say that I “rent” books from the library because I used to return them late so often. It got a lot better once I could renew online. I also started using the receipt they give me when I check out the book as my bookmark so I know when it’s getting close to being due so I can renew if I need to. Those two things really cut down on my late returns.
I’m please that you speak well of libraries (I had read your earlier post when I found your site and read my way all thru it, a year or two ago). As a former librarian for 30 years (I quit after a bad boss, 12 years ago), I can never understand why anyone would not use libraries. They are free (for a minimal amount of taxes–and you’ll pay that whether you use them or not), you can read an untold amount of books, for the taking, any time you want, you find magazines, newspapers, computers, programs, storytimes. What’s not to love? Well, true, fines aren’t great, and the library I was librarian of, did not charge fines, though we did block your card if you were way overdue, till you returned or paid for the missing book(s). I was librarian at a town 30 miles from my home, so now I use my local town library, and they do charge fines. So I do have to pay more attention, and I usually just ask when I am checking out if anything is nearly due. No problem with my own books, but I also check out a lot for my husband now that he’s retired. Use your library, everyone, it’s a great resource!
I’ve got 4 kids age 2-9 and we homeschool so we love our library. We go almost every Tuesday. But if we miss a Tuesday I will almost certainly forget to renew our books online (a wonderful option, by the way!) And our library recently changed so DVD’s have to renewed or returned after 7 days (everything else is 3 weeks). Also, its not unusual for us to max out our 5 cards (30 item limit on each). So that means we often get fines. Uggh. And our library doesn’t let you check out anymore until you bring your fines under 5 dollars.
All that is to say…Thank you for reminding me to go online and renew our stuff. I had two books due yesterday!
Just curious, but are you sure them money from the fines goes to your local library? I am a regular library patron and often have to pay fines. I used to soothe myself with “at least I’m supporting the library” but as it turns out all money collected from fines actually goes to the city…NOT to the library. I still go all the time, and owe money more than I care to admit, but the money I “donate” through fines is not supporting the library.
I still haven’t found the book I’d borrowed… like 5 years ago 🙁
As a children’s librarian, this post really speaks to me. I try to explain what a library is to my parents over and over again, but since they only go to get books or movies, they don’t get it. They don’t see all the people using the library for meet-ups, playdates, taking classes, printing things out, using online sources they would never get to use, etc.
Libraries offer so much to a community.
Our library charges a $50 annual fee, AND allows online renewals, AND sends a reminder a few days in advance, and I still end ip paying late fines. I too look at it as a way of (even further) supporting the library, but after reading the above comment, I’l have to call and find out where the fine money actually goes!
Our fines go to the city so they don’t see the money.
Most library fines go to the city’s General Fund. Many libraries have stopped charging fines—they have found that if they charge fines, patrons won’t return the books. The patrons feel they “own” the books. But libraries really want their books back.
Our family loves books. But I don’t have money or room to house all the books! I’ve asked the librarians if I can just yearly donate $75 so I don’t have to worry about the fines… they’ve all said “no”.
When I’m at the library or online, I check on people’s accounts for books that are coming due and renew them (I have a copy of their cards). (If the computer won’t let me renew a book, I’ll call the library and they’ll usually renew it for at least a week, we’ll have fees but at least it won’t continue to go up!) When at the library, I also pay any fees we have, and see if anyone has books that came in that they ordered.
We now live in the middle of no where (2 hours to towns in opposite directions), so instead of going once a week, we get to the library every 1-3 weeks. We love the library that lets us check out 50 books at a time (per person) versus the one that will only let us check out 25 books. 50 books is about 2 weeks of reading for a couple of my fast readers.
I’ve had way less fines since I started doing the following… I bought several book bags with library names on the bag. As soon as books are read, they go into the correct bag. (And a permanent place close to the door, that was hard to find a spot!) Whenever, someone has an appointment in that town or has to go shopping, they grab the correct bag and return books. (when we lived 10 mins from the library, as soon as the return book bag was mostly full, I would put the book bag into the car so it could get dropped off as soon as we went somewhere)
Until our children are 9, They are allowed 5 books at a time and I keep their books in the library return bag they belong in. Hopefully they get read before they get returned, if not, they’ll get more books another time. (have had too many fines and time spent looking for their books).
For ages 10-14, I have a place for their library books and that’s the only place they get put, until they need to be returned. If I find books sitting around, they have to leave their library books in the library bags like the younger kids for a month. Then we try again. They are allowed 10 books at a time.
My older children and I, require room for up to 50 books at a time. These are kept in our respective bedrooms. This is a designated spot. We’ve had 4 kids in a bedroom before, so you can tell what they value of their space! Sometimes the books get renewed 3 times before they get dropped off. But often they are read and dropped off before they’re due the first time.
So the 3 things that made the biggest difference with getting library books returned, was to have a designated spot for each person’s library books, any library book laying around is put it into the return book bag, and finally having a permanent return book bag place.
my library has gotten smart, I typically return books early but one time I forgot and it was 3 days overdue. My fine was 10 cents…when i asked if she was kidding, she said,no, low fines get us the books back much faster. Brillant! So I even saved the receipt and scrapped the story!