MCLS Initiates Fine Free Policy

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – The Muskingum County Library System is always looking for ways to serve a wide variety of readers in the community and has come up with a new way to incentivize their services. MCLS Executive Director Stacey Russell explains how eliminating late fees can be beneficial to people with busy lifestyles.

“As of today, we are fine free. This means going forward, late fines, we will no longer have late fines. We will excuse any late fines from the past also. This does not mean that if you have lost or damaged an item that you’re not still responsible for it, you are. But we’re very very excited about this,” Russell said. “The Muskingum County Library System has a long history of reducing barriers to resources for our community and this is just one more step in reducing barriers and bringing people into the library.”

MCLS had studied the option of eliminating the fines for several months and decided to follow the trend that other library systems have already adopted.

“Studies that have been done throughout the United States show that books come back sometimes even quicker than they did before and they continue to come back. It’s not like people are going to stockpile their own little mini library at home,” Russell said. “People do bring items back that a ten cent fee really is punitive. It is not enough if somebody wants to keep a book to really make them return it.”

The library offers more than just books. They have CD’s, DVD’s, a telescope, a sewing machine, ukuleles, kids activity packs and games that can be lent, as well as Wi-Fi and internet access that can be used on site.