Late fees are a worry of the past for San Bernardino County Library-goers.
In an effort to promote literacy and accessibility, the library has eliminated late fees for overdue items as of July 1, joining a local and national trend.
The late fee charge was 25 cents a day for adult books and 50 cents per day for DVDs/videos, with a maximum fine of $10.
“Late fees can discourage patrons from checking out items, which is why the county library has worked to eliminate late fees for all library customers,” said County Librarian Melanie Orosco in a San Bernardino County news release. “We felt it was important to remove financial barriers to literacy and encourage customers to continue to checkout large quantities of materials, without the fear of late fees being assessed.”
For lost items, a replacement fee remains intact. Items are declared lost after 21 days without renewal or return of the materials.
In July 2020, the county library stopped charging late fees for children’s materials.
Across the region, other libraries have joined the trend, such as the Rancho Cucamonga and Corona public libraries. Last year, the Riverside City Council eliminated late fees at the Riverside Public Library. In July 2021, the San Bernardino Public Library system first ended overdue penalties for children’s books.
The San Bernardino County Library, which has 32 locations and about 510,000 users, collected roughly $110,000 in revenue from late fees on adult materials in the 2021-22 fiscal year.
According to county spokesperson David Wert, the loss of income from late fees is not significant to the library’s $41 million budget.
“Late fees accounted for a very small fraction of the county Library’s annual revenue and have never been relied upon as a source of revenue,” he said in an email Tuesday, July 9. “The point of late fees was to motivate patrons to return overdue items.”
