Quote:
Originally Posted by j.p.s
Libraries should not use late fees for recurring expenses. Ideally, no item would ever be overdue.
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Too many misunderstood what I was trying to express to quote them all.
My main point was that it is a bad idea to use something like late fees to fund recurring expenses. I don't believe late fees originated as a revenue source, a paid loan extension, or as punishment, but as an incentive to return items on time. DNSB is correct that statistically there will be late returns, but in general, statistics can change. By limiting use of fees to discretionary spending, it would be no big deal if fee revenue plummeted.
By "Ideally, no item would ever be overdue." I meant that that it is desirable that people return books on time, not that physical books should essentially be free to keep however long it takes to read them, without limit.
As a child, I checked out multiple books at a time. Now it almost always takes me longer than a loan period to read a book, so I only check out 0 to 2 books a year and buy e-books commercially instead. So longer loan periods or the ability to renew regardless of holds would seemingly benefit me, but it would just make wait periods even longer than they already are.