[Libs-Or] Discourse around charging for damaged or lost items?

Sat Dec 28 14:23:58 PST 2024

Hello All,

I wanted to take a moment to publicly thank everyone who contributed to this discussion so far, both on list and off. I have found it very helpful as we think about our own policy. I also wanted a chance to highlight the excellent and important work being done at the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library.

Library Director Ashlee Chavez sent me a copy of their recently implemented replacement fee procedures (see attached) and gave me permission to share them. Ashlee mentioned that this was a difficult subject to tackle, but that they had wanted to change their approach to replacement fees.

These changes were only implemented this past July so their impact is still to be determined. With that said, it is very nice to see a fully developed procedure/model up and running in one of our Oregon libraries.

Thank you all again, and please continue to share your thoughts and ideas,

Luke

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Luke Kralik (he/him) |  Main Library Manager
TILLAMOOK COUNTY  |  Library
1716 3rd Street
Tillamook, OR 97141
Phone  (503) 842-4792 x 1760
luke.kralik at tillamookcounty.gov<mailto:luke.kralik at tillamookcounty.gov>

This e-mail is a public record of Tillamook County and is subject to the State of Oregon Retention Schedule and may be subject to public disclosure under the Oregon Public Records Law. This e-mail, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure, or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please send a reply e-mail to let the sender know of the error and destroy all copies of the original message.

From: Libs-Or <libs-or-bounces at omls.oregon.gov> On Behalf Of Mark Rose via Libs-Or
Sent: Monday, December 23, 2024 8:28 AM
To: libs-or at omls.oregon.gov; director bakerlib.org <director at bakerlib.org>
Subject: EXTERNAL: Re: [Libs-Or] Discourse around charging for damaged or lost items?

[NOTICE:  This message originated outside of Tillamook County -- DO NOT CLICK on links or open attachments unless you are sure the content is safe.]
An issue that I have not seen raised as to the value of items in our collections is that our collection is considered capital. No one item in out collection is capital and are added and removed without much consideration of this issue. Should a library suffer a catastrophic situation, such as a fire or a flood, what is the value of the collection? the sum of the parts? We are stewards of a community asset, how do we balance the needs of the community with the reality of replacement costs. When an items is returned damaged I do look at the circulations, if it has exceeded my expectations I write it off to fair wear and tear. When it's has all of 2 circs and I know it would continue to go out, I ask for the value we place in the record. I don't suppose any of us does this with the exact same formula, just don't forget to look at the whole picture.

Another perspective, and Happy Holidays!

Mark Rose

Director, Hermiston Public Library
mrose at hermiston.gov<mailto:mrose at hermiston.or.us>
541-667-5050
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________________________________
From: Libs-Or <libs-or-bounces at omls.oregon.gov<mailto:libs-or-bounces at omls.oregon.gov>> on behalf of director bakerlib.org via Libs-Or <libs-or at omls.oregon.gov<mailto:libs-or at omls.oregon.gov>>
Sent: Friday, December 20, 2024 1:40 PM
To: libs-or at omls.oregon.gov<mailto:libs-or at omls.oregon.gov> <libs-or at omls.oregon.gov<mailto:libs-or at omls.oregon.gov>>
Subject: Re: [Libs-Or] Discourse around charging for damaged or lost items?

[EXTERNAL EMAIL]  - STOP and VERIFY - This message came from outside of the City of Hermiston
________________________________

Luke,

You're right that items depreciate and patrons shouldn't necessarily be billed at the original purchase price.

At BCLD, we train and empower frontline staff to manually adjust lost/damaged billings to current Amazon list price (New/Like New) + shipping, before accepting payment from a patron. This "fair market value" approach makes sense to our patrons. It helps avoid patron attempts to barter with non-exact editions and demonstrates we are concerned about billings being fair while being responsible stewards of public resources.

In a flat rate billing system, I'd be concerned about accumulated losses from more costly items - new/high demand, oversize, large print, multi-disc set DVDs & audiobooks, etc.

Best wishes,

---------------------------------

Perry Stokes, Director

Baker County Library District<https://www.bakerlib.org/>

director at bakerlib.org<mailto:director at bakerlib.org>

(541) 523-6419

From: Libs-Or <libs-or-bounces at omls.oregon.gov<mailto:libs-or-bounces at omls.oregon.gov>> On Behalf Of Mary Reser via Libs-Or
Sent: Friday, December 20, 2024 11:54 AM
To: Kathy Street <kstreet at otld.org<mailto:kstreet at otld.org>>; libs-or at omls.oregon.gov<mailto:libs-or at omls.oregon.gov>; Luke M. Kralik <Luke.Kralik at tillamookcounty.gov<mailto:Luke.Kralik at tillamookcounty.gov>>
Subject: Re: [Libs-Or] Discourse around charging for damaged or lost items?

We consider each item and allow patrons to replace it with a "like" item. It has to be the same edition and in new or like-new condition.

Mary A. Reser

Library Director

Gilliam County Public Library

PO Box 34/134 S. Main Street

Condon OR  97823

(541)351-9512

1-(800)565-4558 ext. 3

(541)351-9511 Fax

From: Libs-Or <libs-or-bounces at omls.oregon.gov<mailto:libs-or-bounces at omls.oregon.gov>> On Behalf Of Kathy Street via Libs-Or
Sent: Thursday, December 19, 2024 12:51 PM
To: libs-or at omls.oregon.gov<mailto:libs-or at omls.oregon.gov>; Luke M. Kralik <Luke.Kralik at tillamookcounty.gov<mailto:Luke.Kralik at tillamookcounty.gov>>
Subject: Re: [Libs-Or] Discourse around charging for damaged or lost items?

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We consider the individual item when possible. Is it old and on its way out? We have more leniency with children's books. We do not allow patrons to replace the item. That has resulted in too many errors.

Kathy Street

Library Director

541-481-3365

________________________________

From: Libs-Or <libs-or-bounces at omls.oregon.gov<mailto:libs-or-bounces at omls.oregon.gov>> on behalf of Luke M. Kralik via Libs-Or <libs-or at omls.oregon.gov<mailto:libs-or at omls.oregon.gov>>
Sent: Thursday, December 19, 2024 9:35 AM
To: libs-or at omls.oregon.gov<mailto:libs-or at omls.oregon.gov> <libs-or at omls.oregon.gov<mailto:libs-or at omls.oregon.gov>>
Subject: [Libs-Or] Discourse around charging for damaged or lost items?

Good morning all,

Like many libraries, our library system went fine free a few years ago. There was a lot of professional discussion around this topic, and the reasoning behind the idea was very strong and persuasive. It appeared that as a profession we took a hard look at a long-standing practice, and (largely) decided that it was a barrier to library access that could be removed without compromising our mission to be good stewards of public resources.

With this in the background, our library is in the process of evaluating our policy on charging for damaged or lost items. Like many libraries, we take a sort of "recoup our losses" approach to assessing these charges, and charge what we paid for said item. However, under closer examination, this reasoning falls apart a little.

We do not always use the fees collected to purchase a replacement copy (maybe the book is now out of print, or when we have multiple copies that will probably be winnowed down anyway). Sometimes we are able to purchase a new copy for less than what we originally paid. In any event, there are times where there seems to be a real disconnect between what we charge and our stated motivation of recouping costs.

We are considering adopting a "standard replacement cost" approach (for example $5 for a paperback, $10 for a hardback, $x for a picture book, $y for a DVD...) rather than charging what we originally paid for the item, or negotiating with the patron when they find a less expensive copy than what we have listed in the ILS.

Do any of you have an alternative model in place for assessing these types of charges? Or could you point me to where this issue is being discussed? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Luke

PS: I don't know if anyone else thinks this is interesting, but if you think of the library as providing access to a collection, as opposed to individual items, it kind of makes sense that the patron is being charged for "degrading the collection" as opposed to "paying for item replacement". This idea is a little half-baked, but is sort of informing our early thoughts on this.

PPS: The reason I made the comparison to "fine free" is that while we need some mechanism for preserving access to the materials, it seems sort of unfair to have a greater penalty for damaging this book in comparison to the penalty charged for damaging this other book. The patron behavior/mistake is the same.

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Luke Kralik (he/him) |  Main Library Manager

TILLAMOOK COUNTY  |  Library

1716 3rd Street

Tillamook, OR 97141

Phone  (503) 842-4792 x 1760

luke.kralik at tillamookcounty.gov<mailto:luke.kralik at tillamookcounty.gov>

This e-mail is a public record of Tillamook County and is subject to the State of Oregon Retention Schedule and may be subject to public disclosure under the Oregon Public Records Law. This e-mail, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure, or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please send a reply e-mail to let the sender know of the error and destroy all copies of the original message.

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