Our Library Stopped Late Fees, So I Stopped Returning Books

The American Library Association cited essentially Marxist justifications for urging all libraries to end late…

The Federalist

The American Library Association cited essentially Marxist justifications for urging all libraries to end late penalties and book replacement fees.

Libraries all over the country are ending the longstanding library tradition of fining patrons for returning books late or not at all. It’s another self-destruction tactic subtler and less morally abominable than using their dedicated taxpayer funds to purchase pornography for children.

Our local government library ended late fees in the last year, so I quickly stopped returning books on time. The lack of fees was especially helpful in recently allowing me to keep for an extra month the book Albion’s Seed. I couldn’t manage to finish that magnificent tome in the usual three-week checkout period. So, I just kept ignoring the “overdue book” notifications the library frantically sent. If there’s no penalty, why should I care?

Common courtesy might be one reason. Someone else appears to have placed a hold on our library’s copy of Albion’s Seed that I temporarily hoarded. That’s why I kept it overdue — because I couldn’t renew it. Sorry, stranger. Our library doesn’t penalize people for keeping books indefinitely, so I guess your hold means nothing now. I won’t begrudge you doing the same to the next person who wants to read that absorbing American history tome. It is 900 pages long, after all.

The American Library Association — the same publicly funded major library association whose current president is a “Marxist lesbian” — formally supported ending all library fees in 2019. Not surprisingly, the policy cited essentially Marxist justifications for urging all libraries to end late penalties and book replacement fees.

“[T]he charging of fees and levies for information services, including those services utilizing the latest information technology, is discriminatory in publicly supported institutions,” the resolution ALA adopted says. The resolution is titled “Resolution on Monetary Library Fines as a Form of Social Inequity.” It further states, “[M]onetary fines present an economic barrier to access of library materials and services,” and it “urges governing bodies of libraries to strengthen funding support for libraries so they are not dependent on monetary fines as a necessary source of revenue.”

This essentially calls for unlimited public expenditure on any material or service a library provides. Some might say that’s not true because many libraries like those in New York City still charge replacement fees for books that are never returned. Advocates of ending late fees claim that offering “fee amnesty” dramatically increased the return of long-lost library items by people who kept the materials to avoid penalties…