Going Fine Free

What is happening?

MLS will be implementing some changes to our Library Accounts and Borrowing policies beginning July 1st. The two major changes happening in July will be starting a fine free pilot and transitioning to a three-year expiration date for library accounts.

Fine Free Pilot

On June 30th, MLS and TLC will be working together to remove all overdue fines from patron accounts and all manual fines that are $3.00 or less. Beginning on July 1, when overdue materials are checked in, no overdue fines will be applied except to ILL, technology items and passes such as Chromebooks, Hotspots, Laptops, and Experience Passes. The items retaining overdue fines will no longer have a grace period to encourage their prompt return for the next customer.

Why are we making this change? 

Fines are often a barrier to customers being able to use the library. Customers may not be able to pay the fines and stop coming to the libraries, even when they are small amounts. 

Library Accounts

Since transitioning to CARL.X, we have not removed inactive customers from our database, resulting in many inactive customers on our rolls. Beginning on July 1, newly registered Primary and Reciprocal accounts will have an expiration date of three years from creation. Later in July, existing Primary and Reciprocal accounts will have their expiration dates updated so that they also expire in three years.

In mid-July, once all our June and fiscal year reporting has been completed, we will remove all inactive patrons in good standing from our database. An inactive patron will be defined as not having used any digital or in-person service that requires a library account in the past 3 years. Customer with lost items on their accounts or with manual fines not removed in the above process will remain in the system.

In 2024, we will begin using an auto-renewal process for Primary and Reciprocal accounts. This process will automatically renew any customers with an account in good standing and that have used their library account for a digital or in-person service in the past 12 months. Customers with a problem on their account will receive an email notifying them that they need to contact the library to resolve the issues on their account. School and Annual Fee accounts will still expire annually and will require staff assistance to renew them as they are currently handled.

Why are we making this change? 

We want our customer list to be as accurate as possible for searching and statistical purposes. With only active customers in the database, it also makes it easier to find our existing customers when we look them up.

More to come

TLC will be releasing an upgrade in late July that will allow customers to renew an item when there are copies on shelf, but another customer has a hold on the item. After we have tested this version to ensure that it works well, we will be implementing automatic item renewals for customers. The system will attempt to renew any items coming due 3 days before the due date. If it is unable to renew, then customers with email notifications will be notified that it cannot renew. The renew button in the catalog will no longer be available when we make this switch. Staff will still have access to renew materials for customers. We ask that staff not provide extra renewals to customers so that customers do not have to wait as long for items they place on hold. The date for this implementation has not yet been set, but it will probably be in August or September.

Why are we making this change? 

We want to make using the library as easy as possible. Customers don’t always remember to renew their items on time. Also, some customers choose to renew their items for all 8 times when they first get their item. When there is only one copy in the system, that means other customers must wait up to six months to get the item they placed on hold.