Greater Sudbury Library drops late fees

Greater Sudbury library drops late fees With the formal end of late fees, there are no more overdue fees at the public library in Sudbury.

Greater Sudbury Public Library has moved to a fine-free approach for overdue material.

It’s a move many public libraries have taken to eliminate barriers for users.

Library officials said overdue fines were eliminated temporarily during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Primarily out of logistical reasons,” said Brian Harding, the CEO and chief librarian of the Greater Sudbury Public Library.

“We had some challenges because of a mandatory quarantine process that inhibited us from quickly processing materials and didn’t want to levy overdue fines on our patrons.”

This fall, the library board approved permanently eliminating overdue fines which was recommended by staff.

“Overdue fines were acting as a barrier,” said Harding.

“So there (are) many patrons that we are aware of that accumulated overdue fines -- in some cases, through no fault of their own -- and were unable to pay those fines and it may be driving patrons away from using the library. So that is a barrier and our job is to eliminate barriers to our patrons.”

Harding said prior to the pandemic, overdue fines were bringing in $40,000-$50,000 in revenue, but it took staff a lot of time processing and handling them.

“By eliminating overdue fines, it frees up our staff to focus on different types of transactions -- more productive transactions we think. So that is providing services to our users helping our users with their information needs,” said Harding.

Library officials said overdue notification reminders are sent out and there are automatic renewals offered on material there are no holds on which means someone else is waiting on it.