Allan Appel Photo
That copy of Catcher in the Rye was due Aug. 5, 2008. Golf for Dummies was due July 6, 2006. Best Plays by Chekhov, June 15, 2004. The winner in the first batch of books returned during the first hour of New Haven’s Fine Forgiveness Week? Amy Tan’s Joy Luck Club. Due date: May 2, 2003.
“Oh, this is nothing,” said Maria Tonelli (at right in photo), the recipient of the books. She said some books out there overdue by as much as 20 years.
Some of those books started finding their way back to the shelves Monday.
Tonelli is the circulation and access services coordinator for the city’s public library system. She was on hand at the library Readmobile Monday to receive the box of 13 long delinquent books from Stephanie Shteirman, the library and media specialists for the New Haven Public Schools.
The books had been collected from kids at two New Haven schools. She said many more long delinquent books are on the way back to the library’s shelves.
The idea of the Fine Forgiveness Week, which was last tried a decade ago, was more than to get the books back on the shelves so people can use them.
“More important than fines is to clear records and not feel guilty,” said City Librarian Christopher Korenowsky.
Until next Monday, all branches and the bookmobile that will be roving among them all week will accept delinquent books, CDs, or any other library materials, no fines levied and no questions asked.
The forgiveness kick precedes a scheduled increase in costs.
Beginning next Monday late fees go from a dime to 20 cents a day for all books, periodicals, CDs, and books on tape.
Korenowsky said that annually the NHFPL collects about $40,000 to $45,000 in late fees. He said he doesn’t expect that number to double just because the fines will.
Yet whatever it is, the new income will help.
“Many people don’t know we’re a city department,” he said.
And all city departments are being asked to look for places to cut and places to find new revenue streams.
In addition to the extra fines, Korenowsky announced that rental fees for the community room and the soon-to-be completed computer room at the main branch will be $25 for two hours; likewise the computer lab at the Wilson branch.
He was at pains to point out that participants in regular library programs will not incur those fees. However, after a study of other city non-profit rental policies in the city, he was surprised to learn the library was one of the few institutions not charging.
“The dollars generated will offset operating funds that we’ll lose in a difficult [upcoming] fiscal year,” Korenowsky predicted.
Korenowsky (at right in photo, with NHFPL board chair Elsie Chapman foreground, Mayor John DeStefano, and city Chief Administrative Officer Rob Smuts) said the current library budget is $3.9 million. He said it was too early to comment on what was in store for his department.
When Fine Forgiveness Week ends next Monday, will the extra dimes help? “Every penny will help. We are delighted to collect shekels. A half penny will help,” Korenowsky said.
Tonelli said that she does not have a precise number of delinquent books out there, but with each library user able to take out a maximum of 30 books at each visit, it might be a lot.
Each of the books in the first batch returned would have cost the delinquent user $10, the maximum for a late book.
Perhaps the newest feature of the new fine regime is that children’s books, such as Snow Sounds by David Johnson, which 3‑year-old Gianni Roman (pictured) was enjoying, are now subject to the daily fine.
Roman was visiting the Readmobile for the occasion with his pals from the United Community Nursery School housed in the United Church’s nearby parish house. Readmobile coordinator Jennifer Painter was reading to him.
“Children have historically never paid a fine in this city, and we’ve allowed the children to be late. Beginning Monday everything will be charged,” Tonelli said.
That’s in part because it’s not unusual, she said, that a mom with a young child will take out the maximum 30 books.
In anticipation of Fine Forgiveness Week, the library sent out 5,000 emails to delinquent borrowers.
One case developed from that email blast to delinquents bore out Korenowsky’s rationale for the fine forgiveness: he’d rather “have you as a user and supporter of the library and you not worry about accrued fine balances.”
The instance came about from a call Tonelli received from a man in London remorseful that he had two CDs due in 2006 but in storage.
“Send them in this week, I said,” Tonelli reported. The man couldn’t get access to them. Nevertheless, he reported that he was looking forward to clearing his conscience: he was going to send in a check for $70, the max of $35 per CD.