The Burlington County Library System (BCLS) is going fine free starting on Monday, July 1.
The Burlington County Commissioners and Burlington County Library Commission announced the new policy this week, saying the change would promote equity and remove a significant barrier that prevents predominantly low-income households from accessing library services and resources.
Under the policy change approved by the library commission, most overdue fines for late materials will be eliminated and all delinquent accounts will be forgiven of overdue fines.
The change will apply to books, DVDs, CDs, magazines, movies, video games and technology-on-loan at all 15 of the BCLS branch libraries and member libraries. Overdue fines will remain for museum passes, classroom kits, book club sets and interlibrary loan items.
BCLS cardholders will still need to pay replacement fees for lost or unreturned materials. The library system will also continue to put a freeze on additional borrowing by cardholders with overdue materials.
Under the fine-free policy, there will be a grace period after an item’s due date. After that grace period ends the item will be placed in lost status, and the borrower will be charged a replacement fee.
Eliminating overdue fines will also free up staff to spend more time on library programs and services rather than having to collect outstanding fines.
For more information about the BCLS, visit https://www.bcls.lib.nj.us/ or call (609) 267-9660.
