Email Notices - Great Service & Great Money Saver

About 2 years ago, the Cumberland County Library System was among the first library systems in Pennsylvania to start sending out our notices via email. This includes notices for overdue items, things that are ready for pick-up, or reminders that your items are due in two days.

This service has been a real favorite among our customers. In fact, it's probably one of the things that I receive the most favorable comments about each week.

Even better, not only have email notices become a customer favorite, but they have also resulted in some big savings for the library system. Since funding is getting tighter and we are busier than ever, finding ways to save staff time and money have become even more essential.

With email we've not only been able to reduce printing and mailing costs, but we've also been able to free up staff to do other things. Last year alone, we sent out about 320,000 email notices to customers. If we had mailed all those notices out, each one could have cost us $.42 in postage. That's a $134,000 savings right there in postage.

If you would like to try this service, fill out the form at:

http://cumberlandcountylibraries.org/forms.aspx?FID=67

Fines Provide A Lot of Money

In December 2007, I wrote about a complaint that the Library System Board received about its fines for video recordings.

The library card member had returned some video recordings a few days late and was upset that he was charged $6 in late fees per item. He knew that he could renew them by phone, online or in-person at the library, but he said it was inconvenient for him to do that.

He suggested that the library system have a grace period, or that we charge lower rates for older materials, or that we lower fines.

After reviewing the issues, the Library System Board decided to keep its current fine rates for video recordings.

This decision was made for two reasons:

1. Video recording fines provide about $52,000 in annual income for the library system. In our current funding climate, the library system cannot afford to lose $26,000 annually.
2. Fines encourage the fast return of materials that are in high demand by our library card members.

Some public libraries in the U.S. have been able to eliminate all fines. It would be great if we could consider doing that too.

But the fact is overdue fines bring in more than $350,000 annually. Those dollars help the library system keep its doors open and provide more materials for everyone.

Overdue Fines - Love 'Em? Hate 'Em?

Librarians hate to receive complaints. We became librarians because we want to provide people with books, information and other resources. So that's why it's always difficult to receive a complaint about some aspect of our service.

At the library system board's meeting on Monday night, a letter from a customer who was upset about the system's $2 fine rate for video recordings was reviewed. The board agreed to review the policy to see if it still makes sense.

The board is very much aware that the system's video overdue fee is higher than its other fine rates. This is part of the reason why it has remained at $2 for more than 20 years. (Our other fine rates have regularly increased to keep up with the cost of inflation.)

The $2 overdue fee was established over 20 years ago for two reasons:

1. At that time all video recordings were prohibitively expensive. Thus, the library system was concerned about covering any possible losses of public funds that were invested in the collection;

2. In relation to other parts of the collection, the video collection was very small, yet the items were in very high demand by our customers. Thus, a higher fine rate was set to encourage people to return items quickly, making them available for others to borrow.

Since then, the price of most popular videos (now DVDs) has dropped significantly (some of the boxed sets, or recordings on special topics are still expensive). However, costs for processing and maintaining the collection remain high due to the need for sturdy circulating cases, theft control devices and cleaning/repairing machines to keep the materials in working order.

More importantly, the library system still faces the challenge of trying to meet the public’s very high demand for the collection with a relatively small number of titles. Unfortunately, current funding levels do not allow us to purchase as many titles as we really need to meet the public’s ever-increasing interest in all parts of our collection.

Thus, experience tells us that higher fine rates do encourage people to return the items promptly. It also provides us with revenue to purchase more titles and maintain the collection.

This is where financial reality sets in. Last year, the system received about $320,000 in library fines. In our current funding climate, those funds go a long way to providing all kinds of materials for our customers.

There are a number of libraries in the nation that have actually eliminated fines. Frankly, this is something that I think we would love to be able to do; but each year we are finding it more and more difficult to balance our books. So, overdue fines remain an important part of our budget.

As the library system board reviews its video recording fine rate policy early next year, we welcome your comments.