Brisbane City Council is setting an example for all libraries with their current initiative – they are giving people the opportunity to have their library fines waived in exchange for donating a can of food to Foodbank who distribute food donations to welfare agencies. The Council last ran a similar scheme in 2005 and collected more than 30,000 tins of food and returned almost 3000 items to libraries.  This benefits not only those in need who receive the food donations but also the library service as a whole as users are encouraged to return long outstanding items without the discouragingly large fine attached.

This initiative is about benefiting the community – through the food donations to those in need, and also in providing the opportunity for library users to maintain use of library services where often they would be unable to until their library fines were at an appropriate amount deemed by the library’s policy. What happens with the money raised from paid library fines is often a mystery – both to the library customer paying the fine, and to those who work in libraries alike. Library fines are in place for many reasons primarily to ensure fair access to library resources, but most importantly the revenue raised from library fines should go back to benefit the community – whatever community the library serves. In this case Brisbane City Council are serving both their library community and the greater community in which they live. Do you know what happens to the money raised from your library’s fines?

It would be great to see similar initiatives rolled out across libraries of all kinds all over Australia. I suggest you all encourage your library to participate in a Christmas in July initiative – in the same vein as Brisbane City Council’s – to waive library fines in exchange for a donation of a can of food. Would your library participate?