Photo by Greasy Fingers III

If you’ve studiously avoided going into your neighborhood public library because of a few overdue books, you’re not the only one. In fact, D.C. library officials have retooled how they charge fines for overdue books to encourage people to come back and return overdue materials.

In late January, the D.C. Library’s board of trustees voted to do away with the usual daily fines for overdue materials, opting instead for a new schedule of fees. Starting today, you’ll no longer have to pay 20 cents per day that a book is overdue; instead, you’ll pay a flat $5 fee if its been overdue for more than 30 days and anywhere between $8 to $20 to replace the book, CD or DVD if it’s kept for more than 60 days after it was expected back. If you rack up $40 in overdue fines, you’ll be blocked from checking out any more materials.

Library officials say that the change was sparked by a recent two-month-long amnesty on overdue fines, during which 21,075 books, magazines, DVDs, CDs and other materials that were long overdue or had been considered lost were returned. (Including a book checked out in 1978.) They discovered that many patrons were just as likely to avoid the library altogether if they had an overdue material as they were to return it and pay the fines.

Speaking of, I need to run—I’ve got an overdue book to return.