by Carol Nelson
Quick Summary
If the St. Paul City Council adopts their mayor's proposal, St. Paul Public Library will stop charging late fines as of January 2019.
In Minitex Resource Sharing a lot of our work happens behind the scenes and our interactions patrons is limited. This week I watched a web video of St. Paul Mayor, Melvin Carter, as he announced that he would be proposing the elimination of late fees for library patrons in his new budget to the city council. The video also included St. Paul Public Library staff as they explained how frustrating and difficult it is to turn away patrons who most need to use library services simply because their library cards have fines. The video is worth watching if you aren't already familiar with the issue.
This is a problem that disproportionately impacts low income library users which is illustrated in a map explaining the proposal on the St. Paul Public Library website. Currently 51,000 library cards are blocked due to fines. According to Carter, “Moving away from late fines will make our libraries more accessible and welcoming for all of our residents. I look forward to welcoming back all of our library users who have been blocked because they couldn’t afford to pay a fine.”
If the St. Paul City Council adopts the mayor's proposal, St. Paul Public Library will stop charging late fines as of January 2019.
