We are Fine Free!
Fine-Free Fast Facts
- Late fines will no longer be charged.
- All old late fines will be forgiven for all patrons.
- Items that are lost or damaged will have replacement fees. Review our Materials Recovery Program for more details.
- Lost items that are returned or replaced with an approved copy will have lost fees removed.
The library in Muskingum County has a history of changing service models to meet the changing needs of our community. Fine-free is the next step in reducing barriers for our community and providing access to resources.
A Brief History of Being Open to All
In December 1828, a reading group called “The Athenaeum” was incorporated. Members could access their book collection for a yearly fee of $5 (around $150 in today’s money).
By 1904, the citizens of Zanesville knew they wanted a public library. So they transferred ownership to the Board of Education, reduced the yearly fee to $1 (around $30 in today’s money), and secured funds from Andrew Carnegie to help build what we now know as the John McIntire Library.
The library made headlines again in 1917 when they proposed that the library should be open to farmers. At that time, the decision was made to open membership up to the entire county. By 1937 access to the library was made entirely free to anyone in Muskingum County. This began the expansion of library services in the county throughout the remainder of the 1900s.
In July 2022, we are continuing to honor the tradition of eliminating barriers by moving to the new fine-free model of public library service.
We do not lose as many items – our loss rate is less than 1%. – Our patrons return their items on a more timely basis. In fact, approximately 95 percent of materials are returned within a week of their due date. – We have more patrons return to using the library. They are no longer ashamed to come to the library because of having items that were late. – There has been a 60% drop in overdue items from the time that we started this in 2005. At that time we had thousands of overdue items. That year we started mailing reminders and informed our patrons that fines had been discontinued.
Fine-Free Q&A
Question: Won’t people just not return items?
Answer: Many public libraries across the country have moved to a fine-free model and there has not been a significant increase in the number of lost items. This is mostly due to the fact that lost items on a patron’s account result in lost fees and suspension of their library card privileges. To learn more about how we get our items returned, view our Materials Recovery Program.
Q: Don’t late fines provide funding to the library?
A: In the past three years, less than one percent (0.34%) of the budget was from fines and the cost of collecting fines comes close to exceeding the amount collected.
Q: Will we run out of items on the shelf?
A: We will not run out of items on the shelf. In April 2022, only 7.6% of the total MCLS collection was checked out. We also have librarians and assistant librarians who check usage and gaps and then purchase additional copies based on the needs, wants, and trends in our community.
Q: What about teaching people personal responsibility?
A: There are still consequences for not returning library items. Patrons will pay for lost or damaged items or lose library card privileges.
Q: Will I have to wait longer for my holds?
A: Currently 75% of our holds are filled in three days and 87% are filled in ten days. We have our librarians and assistant librarians monitoring and purchasing based on wait times. During this transition, we will be keeping an even closer eye on hold times to ensure they are not negatively impacted.
After fine-free, we were averaging a little more than 1000 items not returned per year, which amounts to about 0.6% of our collection, and 0.25% of circulation.
Would you like to learn more about how being a fine-free library will affect your membership? Take a look at our new user guide linked below.