Starting June 1st, the library has stopped charging people for overdue materials and forgiven outstanding fines. Moving forward, individuals will still be required to pay for items that they lose or damage. Sam Killian is the district’s Community Relations Coordinator.
“We really want to make this a welcoming place for people, and we hope this is a decision that really does bring people back for whom it might have been a legitimate barrier for people to come use the library,” Killian says.
The district had previously suspended fines on a temporary basis during the COVID-19 pandemic. Killian says they determined fining people was not an effective use of library resources and generally caused more problems than it solved.
Non-commercial, fact based reporting is made possible by your financial support. Make your donation to WEMU today to keep your community NPR station thriving.
Like 89.1 WEMU on Facebook and follow us on Twitter
Contact WEMU News at 734.487.3363 or email us at studio@wemu.org