(Seguin) — Fines are officially a thing of the past at the Seguin Public Library.
Library Director Jacki Gross says this means library members will no longer be charged overdue fines for late books, audiobooks, and DVDs.
“Over the last five, six years, it’s kind of been a trend at libraries. It was originally thought to encourage people to return books and what has been found is it actually discourages that and it makes it hard for a lot of times the people who most need the library to use the library because even a $5 fine could be hard for some families — even more so now in our economy and so, a couple of years ago, we did away with fines on juvenile materials and fortunately, the mayor and city council agreed that we could extend this to all library materials so we are excited to be able to do that and hopefully encourage people to take advantage of the library since their tax dollars fund it,” said Gross.
By eliminating late fees on materials, the library hopes to encourage community members, especially families, to take advantage of all the resources and services the library has to offer without the fear of incurring fines. More importantly, she say library cards are still free for all residents of Guadalupe County.
Meanwhile, late fees for Interlibrary Loans and electronic devices such as, hotspots, tablets, and laptops will remain. Plus, fees associated with lost or damaged materials will still apply.
“It’s everyone’s property so you need to take care of it and be responsible for it but the difference is instead of accruing a fine, if you are late on a book, you are not going to do that. You don’t have to worry about that but you still need to return the books in a timely manner so other people can take advantage of them,” said Gross.
Those wishing to learn more about available services at the library are encouraged to visit library.seguintexas.gov.