Do you have an overdue library book? Beware!

I'll admit it...I'm a librarian (ok, former librarian) who more often that not returns books late. I swear I was never like this until I had a baby...I generally returned them early.

I don't mind paying a late fee (usually only a couple of days late)...and I've suspended MANY ppl's library priviledges due to overdue books/fines...but jail???

Check this out! Woman Jailed over Overdue Library Book

I guess the moral of the story is if you live in Iowa, return your books! (BTW, I've read the book she was jailed over...AWESOME read!)

Our library system reports you to credit agencies after a certain time period. It would suck to have a bad mark on your credit for a .50 fine.

Something else about ours, the fines you pay do not go to the library, but to the general fund of the city - so while we used to think no biggie, it'll help them buy more books - nope

This past two weeks they've been doing a food drive for fines, which was a big hit, too bad they won't do it all the time.

That's crazy! Lol!

LMAO...that's nuts!! I have no idea what happens here if you have overdue fines or don't return a book. I know that the town where I went to high school, if you claimed it was lost, you just had to pay the value of the book and be done with it. I've had overdue fines here for 6 months+ (but had returned the books, just hadn't paid my fines) without issue.

I am not related to her.

I read that yesterday. I'm sorry, it's a book, it's not a rare book that can't be replaced,lol. Albeit she was asked over and over to return it, jail seems incredibly over the top imo. As a child i had overdue books so often i swear i bought more than a few books for them,lol. Good thing I didn't live in Iowa at the time :|.
But then, that was over 40 years ago or so and things weren't so over legalized at the time. Just seems that with all the hard crime in this country that someone would be taken to jail over a $14 book that is overdue is ludicrous and a waste of judicial time.

Brooke W said:

I read that yesterday. I'm sorry, it's a book, it's not a rare book that can't be replaced,lol. Albeit she was asked over and over to return it, jail seems incredibly over the top imo. As a child i had overdue books so often i swear i bought more than a few books for them,lol. Good thing I didn't live in Iowa at the time :|.
But then, that was over 40 years ago or so and things weren't so over legalized at the time. Just seems that with all the hard crime in this country that someone would be taken to jail over a $14 book that is overdue is ludicrous and a waste of judicial time.

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I definitely agree...child abusers, thieves, rapists, murderers are walking free...but the police have the time to pick up a woman for the horrid CRIME (?) of an overdue library book???

Yikes - I DO live in Iowa. LOL

pewtertm said:

I definitely agree...child abusers, thieves, rapists, murderers are walking free...but the police have the time to pick up a woman for the horrid CRIME (?) of an overdue library book???

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I'm definitely not disagreeing that there are more Big Bads out in the word than this - however, The town where this woman lived? She is probably considered one of them "hooligans".

Mandy said:

I am not related to her.

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LOL I thought of you when I saw her last name.

Seems a bit much but I suppose at a certain point events get out of hand with people. They did a number of things to contact her and, if a cop arrived at my door in September asking about a library book that needed returning I think I would have found time in next 4 months to address the issue with the library. Even if I spent a few days moving in October. I think there are other issues at work in that story.

One of our libraries reports you to collection company here if you are too late paying your fines. There is a $$ limit & a time limit before you are reported though. The fine is something like 5 cents a book a day and you can call & have your books renewed over the phone unless someone is waiting for it. I occasionally have to pay 25 cents here & there & fortunately it all goes to the library itself. The other one uses social shame to get you to pay up. They publish your name in the paper along with how much you owe once you owe more that $5 and don't respond to their attempts to collect. (it's a small county, you *will* hear about it if you are in the paper for any reason. even the grocery store cashiers will ask "So what book do you have checked out anyway? Is it that good?")

My county library is awesome and goes the other way, toward leniency. They don't want to make it too hard for people to bring books back. No matter HOW LARGE your fine, the most you have to pay is $10. I had a fine over $100 once!!! Just paid $10 and I was good to go. Also, they charge you exact replacement values on lost books, and if you really don't know what happened and thought you turned it in, you can claim you returned it and they will give you time to figure it out.

They explicitly say that they would rather make it easier, not harder, for people to use the library system, and to encourage books to be returned. I think they caught on that the "excessive punishment" approach just turns people off from libraries.

That's way too harsh! I agree with all that Elizabeth said. They SHOULD make it easier for people to use the library system and that that type of punishment will make people not want to go to a library at all.

wow, that's a bit much...LOL