Overdue fines and Automatic patron blocks

In 2005-2006 Summit Borrowing Committee and Steering Team have discussed ways of encouraging the timely return of materials. As part of the strategy, the committee asked for information to share about various members' policies on charging overdue fines, and blocking patron requests. The information below was collected from a survey August-September 2006.

Overdue fines

Do you charge overdue fines?

28 responses: 2 do not charge overdue fines for Summit Borrowing, and 26 charge overdue fines for Summit Borrowing:

of those 26: 22 charge fines to all patrons, and 4 charge fines to some patrons

undergraduate students: 26

grad students: 25

faculty: 22

staff: 23

special patrons: 23

Courtesy notices

Do you send courtesy notices?

20 yes, 8 no (3 members are planning to start sending notices this term, and 2 looking into it)

comments:

1 We are going to start sending courtesy notices at the start of the fall term.

2 if we have email addresses

3 Courtesy notices are a huge help in keeping books coming back on time. Overdues dropped drastically from last year with no courtesy notices.

4 EWU is currently in process of implementing. Should have up and going within a couple of weeks.

5 We have sent courtesy notices for one year and our patrons love them.

6 Clark doesn't send courtesy notices for 3 day or local reserve items.

7 We are considering adding courtesy notices this year.

8 Except for 3 day books. will insitute that later this year.

9 We are looking into setting this up.

10 We will be implementing Courtesy Notices this month.

When do you send courtesy notices?

Regular Loan # days before overdue	members	Short Loan # days before overdue	members
7 days	1	7 days	7
5 days	2	5 days	1
4 days	4	4 days	0
3 days	9	3 days	2
2 days	2	2 days	2
1 day	1	1 day	0

Automatic blocks

Notes: when reviewing Max Owed, Max Items, and Max Holds:

• Very low numbers indicate a low threshold for blocking patrons from additional requests. For example, a patron with 50 items checked out ("Max Items") would be blocked from additional requests until returning some item(s). Very high numbers indicate a high threshold, or no practical limit to exceed that would block the patron from making requests.
• Fines may have more influence on returning materials than automatic blocks.
• Consider impact on local patrons when local limit is set lower than the Summit maximum.

Automatic blocks for Undergrad students:

	Expiration Date	Max Owed	Max Items	Max Holds
1	Blocked if beyond current term(Y)	$5.00	200	30
2	y	$500.00	50	10
3	end of term	$50	1000	100
4	y	$500	1000	30
5	y	n/a	150	50
6	y	$200.00	299	25
7	y	1	1999	2
8	Y	$19.99	999	999
9	Y	$999.99	500	500
10	Expirations is end of quarter plus 21 days	$15.00	100	no limit
11	First day of following quarter	$1.00	200	200
12	y	$5,000.00	2100	500
13	y	5	20	10
14	set by quarter	$100.00	100	25
15	y	999	3000	30
16	Y	$999.99	1999	500
17	y	999.99	999	500
18	set by patron load	$999.00	1999	500
19
20	yes	na	999	25
21	end of current quarter	$150	999	999
22	4 weeks past last date of term	999.99	199	500
23	Y	$20	100	30
24	10/15/2007	49.99	100	100
25	y	$1.00	1999	999
26	y	$99999 (we never block)	999 (no limit)	999 (no limit)
27	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.
28	end of current quarter	$20.00	50	25

Automatic blocks for Grad students:

	Expiration Date	Max Owed	Max Items	Max Holds
1	Blocked if beyond current term (Y)	$5.00	200	50
2	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
3	end of term	$50	1000	100
4	y	$500	1000	30
5	y	n/a	150	50
6	y	$200.00	299	25
7	y	1	1999	2
8	Y	$19.99	999	999
9	Y	$999.99	500	500
10	Expiration is end of quarter plus 90 days	$15.00	100	no limit
11	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.
12	y	$5,000.00	2100	500
13
14	set by academic year	$100.00	100	25
15	--	--	--	--
16	na	na	na	na
17	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
18	set by patron load	$999.00	1999	500
19
20	yes	na	999	25
21	end of current quarter	$150	999	999
22	na	na	na	na
23	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.
24	10/15/2007	49.99	100	100
25	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.
26	y	$99999 (we never block)	999 (no limit)	999 (no limit)
27	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.
28	end of current quarter	$20.00	50	25

Automatic blocks for Faculty:

	Expiration Date	Max Owed	Max Items	Max Holds
1	Blocked if beyond current term (Y)	$999.99	200	50
2	y	$500.00	50	20
3	end of acad yr	$9.999,999	1000	100
4	y	$500	1000	50
5	n	n/a	150	50
6	y	$200.00	299	25
7	y	20	1999	2
8	Y	$19.99	999	999
9	Y	$999.99	500	500
10	Must be employeed or retired	$52.00	100	no limit
11	1 year after contract expires	$1.00	200	200
12	y	$5,000.00	2100	500
13	n	58	25	25
14	based on period of employment	$300.00	100	25
15	n	999	300	100
16	Y	$999.99	1999	500
17	y	999.99	999	500
18	set by patron load	$999.00	1999	500
19
20	yes	na	na	na
21	end of current quarter	150	999	999
22	End on next Spring term	999	199	500
23	N	$999.99	999	100
24	10/15/2007	999.99	999	999
25	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.
26	y	$300 (theoretically - hard to enforce)	999 (no limit)	999 (no limit)
27	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.
28	end of current school year	n/a	50	25

Additional comments

At WWU fines and blocks have proven to be effective tools in getting materials back in a timely manner. Our campus faculty have become better at returning all materials since we started fining for Summit and ILL items. Our fine blocks for students include not only library privileges but registration activities also. Wanting to check out a laptop, order another Summit book or drop a class are all great incentives to take care of business.

Clark staff have same limits as students and faculty but their privileges expire 4 months after last paycheck.

Rather than block library service, we clear their library fines balance monthly & send to student accounts so that their grades are held if accounts aren't paid up.

Accounts are blocked when referred to a collection agency by student accounts office.

2003-04 Survey: Fines charged to patrons

updated: October 18, 2006