We are happy to announce that the Hepburn Library of Waddington will no longer charge late fees on Children’s items starting June 1st, 2022. This change will eliminate a barrier to access and ensure that all children in the community have free and open access to the Local Library in Waddington.
The Library Board voted to allow this change on the heels of the NYPL system going fine-free earlier this year. Eventually, we’d love to eliminate all fines – but we are starting with Children’s Items first to see how it goes.
In 2019 the American Library Association passed a resolution citing mounting evidence that eliminating fines increases library card sign ups and library use. This resolution also recognized fines as a form of “social inequity” and urged libraries to actively “move toward eliminating them.” Libraries throughout the country are going fine-free and the response has been a high return of materials and high return of library users. We have seen that libraries who have adopted fine-free policies are seeing the same rate of return on items.
All fines accrued at the Hepburn Library of Waddington for Children’s Items will be eliminated June 1st. We are committed to increasing reading and literacy in our community, and combating the “summer slump” that causes students to lose skills between grades. As Summer Reading approaches we hope that by eliminating previous fines and by going fine-free, we will get more kids to use the library regularly.
Our Summer Reading program will be July 5 – August 12th this year and we are really looking forward to it.
Fines will still be assessed for lost or damaged items. Visit this link to view our full policy: Fine-Free Children’s Policy
