University librarians across Canada agree that enforcing late fees for overdue library loans is necessary in order to get their materials back and maximize the availability of resources. Students, staff and faculty members who fail to meet due dates are forced to pay a price — but what may seem like only nickels can quickly add up, with the U of M collecting $100,000 in fines last year.
At the University of Manitoba a fine of 50 cents per day per item is assessed on overdue library items. The fines accumulate until the material is returned or reaches a maximum of $50 per item.
Nicole Michaud-Oystryk, head of the Elizabeth Dafoe Library, said that the fines have increased, since the initial fees implemented in 1994 were 25 cents per day for overdue items from the general circulating collections. Before ‘94 there was only fines on late reserve items, said Oystryk.
According to Karen Adams, director of libraries at the U of M, the amount collected from late fees the last fiscal year came to approximately $100,000.
“This amount is reduced by a modest amount every year through our week-long Food for Fines campaigns in both the fall and winter terms in support of the campus food bank,” she said.
Adams notes that the libraries have felt more financial pressure this year, especially in the area of collections.
“Much of what we buy comes from outside Canada, so when the dollar fell last fall just as the big bills for electronic serial collections were coming in, this was a huge problem,” she said.
Adams said that, in spite of budget problems facing the university, the libraries’ budget for collections was increased by $200,000 this year.
“Nevertheless, this increase resulted in a reduction of about $800,000 to manage currency fluctuation and inflationary increases,” she said.
A representative from the Brandon University reference desk estimates that the amount of money collected from late fees over the course of a year amounts to somewhere between $5,000 and $10,000. BU’s library gives students an initial two-week period that can be renewed twice before they start getting charged 50 cents a day.
He said the amount has never changed: “It’s been this way for so long. But we don’t do it for the money. We do it because otherwise we just won’t get the books back.”
Regarding the library’s financial situation, he says he hasn’t noticed any additional financial pressures this year, “but money is always tight,” he said.
Mary McDonald, head of circulation at the Health Sciences Library of the University of Dalhousie said that their fee structure has been in place for at least 20 years. The established fee amount is 25 cents a day, which is the same amount across all Nova Scotia libraries.
McDonald said the maximum fee a student would ever have to pay on an overdue item is $20, unless they never return it, in which case they would pay the price of the item.
McDonald said that raising library fees when funding is short would only happen as a last resort.
“That has never come under discussion in terms of if the university is short in funding [ . . . ]. Typically what the university does is raise tuition fees.” She continued, “Dalhousie has one of the highest tuition fees in the country, but the library never looks at increasing its overdue fees.”
Effective May 1, 2002, Canadian Universities Reciprocal Borrowing Agreement (CURBA) established an agreement that students, faculty and staff from across the country could borrow books from any university library in Canada without being charged additional fees, as long as they have a valid university identification card.
However, the agreement does not set regulations for fees, which are established independently by the participating university library administration.
While students might be able to save some change in Nova Scotia or at Queen’s University library with a daily fine of 40 cents, U of M’s fees of 50 cents per day look quite reasonable when compared to double that amount at UBC, with a charge of $1 per day — or worse — at McMaster, with a charge of $2 per day, or even part of day.
Students at the U of M have varying opinions when it comes to late fees, but many feel that they are overpriced.
Sameera Abdulrehman, an honours English student who takes out books every other week, was surprised when she was asked to pay $44 in library fines.
“I was writing an essay over Christmas break. [I] took out seven or eight books to filter through [ . . . ]. When I came back, I took a week to edit the paper and handed it in. By the time I got to returning the books, they slapped me with about $40 worth of late fees,” she said.
Abdulrehman feels that the library could find alternative methods to charging students. “They should cap the amount and charge a maximum of $20 total [ . . . ], and if they’re still not returned, they could freeze their aurora accounts or something,” she said. As of now, the U of M freezes a student’s library account when it reaches $10, according to the U of M Libraries website.
Will Burton, a pre-masters history student took out a book that was on reserve at the library and returned it the next day. Two days later, when he went in for another book, he was told he had a $30 fine. The book had been put back on the shelf, but hadn’t been checked back in. His fees were eventually revoked.
“[The fees] are pretty steep, but I can understand why they charge that much,” he said.
Burton doesn’t think the fees are unreasonable, and recognizes that they keep students from taking advantage of the system.
“If it wasn’t that much money, people just wouldn’t return the books,” he said. “You’ve just got to be on top of things and remember what you’ve taken out.”
