Arlington Heights library waives fees for thousands
More than 4,000 Arlington Heights Memorial Library cardholders returned overdue items without having to pay fines during the library's first Fine Forgiveness Week last month, officials said.
While that represents a fraction of the estimated 25,000 customers with past-due books or materials, the initiative helped welcome back people to the library who have stayed away for some time.
Nearly 400 patrons hadn't used their library cards in more than 18 months prior to the week of Oct. 24-31, when fines up to $50 were waived.
"We were trying to reach out to people who hadn't been engaged with the library," said Executive Director Mike Driskell. "Some customers had been away for many years. The response was more than what we anticipated, but that was our goal."
For the 4,317 customers who brought back late items, a total of $26,150.85 was waived. Library officials are still tabulating exactly how many late materials were returned.
But the early returns for the one-week program already has created discussion that the library do it again.
"This is wonderful, and if we could do it more than once a year, I'd be in support of that," said Library Trustee Marianthi Thanopoulos, suggesting perhaps twice-a-year or quarterly fine forgiveness periods.