Why your library could soon change completely

Borrowing books from the library comes with one headache readers may no longer have to worry about.

Libraries are ditching late fees – and readers are cheering.

Readers could soon no longer have to worry about racking up excessive late fees on their library books.

As part of a broader international trend, one Perth library is scrapping its late fees completely.

Cambridge town mayor Keri Shannon explained the cost of administration to monitor and track down overdue books was more than the library earned in fines.

Last year, Cambridge Library raked in just under $15,000 in fees for overdue library books.

However, Ms Shannon says the juice just isn’t worth the squeeze.

“The report to council explained that the cost of the administration was actually greater than the fee collected,” she told 6PR on Friday.

Many councils found removing late fees actually increased the likelihood of books being returned.

A broad push to ditch late fees gained momentum last year in Australia with The City of Sydney Council removing fees from all of its libraries

It found removing fines actually encouraged people to return their books and continue using the library more often.

Under the scheme, libraries temporarily suspended borrowers’ memberships until the books were returned rather than fining them.

More than half of Victoria’s public libraries have also followed, promising the move would save ratepayers money.

Ms Shannon said the aim was to encourage people to use the library and create a kinder atmosphere.

“We really want to change the way people use our libraries, and we want to take away the need to bring the books in a short period of time,” she said.

“People have busy lives and they may not be able to get the books back within a certain time … a reasonable time that they feel they can read them and enjoy them.”