

Have overdue fines at the Nevada Public Library? Library Director Shanna Speer has an idea for how you can pay them off. Read more.


Under the program, called Pages for Payment, library patrons with overdue fines can reduce those fines or even eliminate them, Speer said.


“Participants have to come to the library during the specified dates and times. They check with the front desk to get their patron number and find out how much their fines are. Then they will check in with the person in the meeting room using their patron number and their time (of reading down fines) will start.”


For every 15 minutes a person reads, they will earn $1 to be removed from their fine balance. People are allowed to come and go whenever they want or need to, and staff will round up the time if they have reached an increment of more than 10 minutes when they leave.


The dates and times for reading down fines are:


• Wednesday, March 14 from 1-3 p.m.


• Thursday, March 15 from 5:30-7:30 p.m.


• Friday, March 16 from 11 a.m.-1 p.m.


Speer said that most people have no idea how big the outstanding debt is when it comes to fines.


“According to our library program, there are over $75,000 in unpaid fines from patrons over the years,” she said.


That’s prompted library staff and board members to look for new ways to address the issue.


Speer said when Assistant Director Amanda Bellis joined the staff in Nevada, Bellis had experience from other libraries that encouraged Nevada staff and board members to think of additional ways they could help people.


“There have also been suggestions of reading down fines on the Iowa library forum of ways to help people reduce their fines,” Speer said.


The biggest concern for the library, when it comes to fines, is about making the libraries services work for all patrons. “We’re not so worried about the debt and how much the unpaid amount is. We’re worried about people being able to continue to use our services and have a positive reflection of the library. We’re working on ways we can work with people and change how we’re doing things, too, to make sure people can still check out (the things they want).”


Library officials really hope the program will bring people back in who might have stopped coming because they couldn’t check out (because of fines).


“Everyone is always welcome to come spend time in the library, come to programs or read while they’re here, even if they have large fines,” Speer said. “Sometimes people just don’t have the time, though, and they just want to check out a couple movies for the weekend. If their fines are too large, they can come in and read to get them back down so they can get those movies.”


In addition to the Pages for Payment program, the library will still hold its annual Fine Amnesty in April.


“During National Library Week (April 9-14), we encourage people to bring in nonperishable food donations,” Speer said. With the donations, we remove fines on current overdue items and cut old fines in half. If you combine the Pages for Payment and Fine Amnesty, we’re hoping that almost anyone would be able to get back to where they can check [items] out.”
http://www.amestrib.com/news/20180309/pages-for-payment-will-let-nevada-library-patrons-read-down-their-fines
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