Has your library card been gathering dust? Afraid you’ll get disapproving glances if you hand in that book that’s three months overdue? You’re not alone, which is why the Region of Waterloo Library is preparing to roll out the welcome mat for their lost patrons in a week of mercy.
Amnesty Week runs August 27-September 1, a one-time opportunity to bring back overdue books with no strings attached.
Those with outstanding fines can bring back the materials and have their records wiped clean. You can even avoid those terrifying disapproving eyes by dropping your books off in the regular drop boxes. As long as the books are returned, the fines are gone.
“This is the first time that we’ve done it; we are anticipating it to be a one-time-only thing. Our main goal with amnesty week is twofold: it’s to encourage patrons who haven’t been into the library for quite a while to come back. Often people don’t come back to the library if they have fines or if they have books that are very overdue. Our other reason is to try and encourage them to bring back those books,” RWL’s manager of information services Kelly Bernstein said this week.
The regional library isn’t the first to offer its patrons such sympathy: the technique has been employed at other libraries, Bernstein said. Giving it a go in the region was suggested by library committee.
Staff hopes that many nervous patrons, whether their books are overdue by one day or one year, will be making their way back thanks to the initiative.
Many people are uncomfortable with their overdue status and the longer they wait the harder it is to return the books, either because they are embarrassed or because of mounting fines that are never fun to settle up. This causes the library to lose a number of books every year and, more importantly, to lose patrons, she said.
“We typically have, say, 600 items that have been overdue longer than the normal period. It is normal to have some books lost that way.”
Along with amnesty week, the library plans to roll out some other new initiatives outlined in a recommendation report that followed extensive input from users, including a telephone survey of township residents as a whole.
The study found the library serves a significant portion of the public, boasting 18,000 borrowers (28 per cent of residents in the region’s four townships).
Due to input from the public, RWL has made some changes to its services. Chief among these is a significant shift in hours at the respective branches in order to better fit users’ daily schedules. Initiatives like programs for babies at the Elmira branch will also come into play in the fall, this one in particular to help introduce kids to literacy from the start, said Bernstein.
The system scored generally high marks from users, but there’s always room for improvement, she said, noting it’s the library’s business to know what the public wants.
“The best way to find out is to ask them.”
