I was intrigued and entertained in equal measure perusing the colorful models for library services on offer in the “New Models” module for the Hyperlinked Library.<\/p>\n
I also found the Q&A with Eric Klinenberg to be very intellectually fruitful, and even slightly frustrating when it came to certain service models in cities with an “anti-tax ideology” like San Jose. At first I couldn’t believe that San Jose’s public libraries would be cracking down on late fees, then I realized that this interview was from 2018 — in other words, pre-pandemic, and before the ALA’s landmark \u201cResolution on Monetary Library Fines as a Form of Social Inequity,<\/a>\u201d which hit the ground in 2019. Ever since then, there has been an avalanche of libraries, and other public institutions, that have ditched the fines and fees model altogether. A quick search online revealed SJPL is, in fact, fine-free as of 2024<\/a>, which perhaps places it as one of the stragglers of major public libraries to have adopted such policies. Once I started investigating, I couldn’t help but trying to form a chronology of the fine-free library movement, chaining along the major libraries that have taken up the banner since the ALA’s radical rallying call in early 2019.<\/p>\n Nashville public libraries went fine-free way back in 2017<\/a>, being at the time the the largest, most influential library system in the country to do so. Many other metropolitan library systems followed suit in the ensuing months<\/a>, from San Diego, to Salt Like City, and most notably Chicago Public Libraries in September of 2019<\/a>, the first of the “Big Three” most populous cities in the US to do so. Clearly the shockwaves were being felt from coast to coast, with Phoenix Public Library going the same route mere weeks later in November 2019<\/a>, and Seattle Public Libraries on January 2nd, 2020<\/a>, only a few months before COVID turned the country and the world completely upside down.<\/p>\n Indeed, for all the havoc it wreaked, the COVID era proved to be the nail in the coffin for most metropolitan-area libraries’ late fees: L.A. Public Library went fine free in Spring of 2020<\/a>, as did the Free Library of Philadelphia<\/a>, and in 2021 LA County Library<\/a> and New York Public Library<\/a> adopted the same model.<\/p>\n Now that the smoke has cleared somewhat, it seems there’s hardly a major public library system in the US that\u00a0isn’t<\/em> fine free! I assume at this point it comes down to the smaller regional libraries to keep the system in place; perhaps they’re just not willing to take the risk. Whether that comes down to not trusting their patrons enough, or being too strapped for cash, or whatever else, I can’t say.<\/p>\n For my part, I can say that the independent village library at which I work is fine-free, and is doing fine (pardon the pun). We don’t have a fancy webpage announcing as such, but we try to communicate the policy as loudly and often as possible — I can tell you that patrons really appreciate it!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I was intrigued and entertained in equal measure perusing the colorful models for library services on offer in the “New Models” module for the Hyperlinked Library. I also found the Q&A with Eric Klinenberg to be very intellectually fruitful, and even slightly frustrating when it came to certain service models in cities with an “anti-tax … Continue reading \u2022 Reflection on New Models: Fine Free Libraries<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":817,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/287.hyperlib.sjsu.edu\/mycelialibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/287.hyperlib.sjsu.edu\/mycelialibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/287.hyperlib.sjsu.edu\/mycelialibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/287.hyperlib.sjsu.edu\/mycelialibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/817"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/287.hyperlib.sjsu.edu\/mycelialibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/287.hyperlib.sjsu.edu\/mycelialibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124,"href":"https:\/\/287.hyperlib.sjsu.edu\/mycelialibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108\/revisions\/124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/287.hyperlib.sjsu.edu\/mycelialibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/287.hyperlib.sjsu.edu\/mycelialibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/287.hyperlib.sjsu.edu\/mycelialibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}