The Carroll County Public Library Board of Trustees voted Wednesday to delay a decision on whether to bring back fines for overdue materials and voted unanimously to not open libraries on Sundays.
Andrea Berstler, executive director of the library system, presented completed studies on charging adults fines for overdue materials and extending operating hours to Sundays during a board meeting Wednesday night. The studies were required by county commissioners for the library system to receive full funding allocated in the fiscal 2025 budget, which begins July 1.
In Berstler’s presentation on overdue fines, she said projected revenue from collecting fines would be about $27,000. But with this revenue, there are “measurable and unknowable costs” stated in the study, such as strains on staff, library software adjustments, the reinstatement of credit card devices on checkout machines and time spent collecting the fines, Berstler said.
A new law passed in the Maryland General Assembly also complicates matters, Berstler said. The law, which will take effect Oct. 1, prohibits public libraries from charging a fine for overdue library materials “borrowed by a minor or intended for children or teens.” The “intention” part of the law makes it difficult for library employees to discern who to charge for overdue materials, Berstler said, since some people could be checking out books with the intention of giving them to minors.
Some library staff members present at Wednesday’s meeting also said it has been much easier to charge replacement fees for materials that are 35 days overdue. The library considers those items lost and charges borrowers a replacement fee. They have 90 days to return the materials to have the fee removed, according to the library’s website.
“Who knows better what’s happening at the libraries than the staff that is actually working in the libraries?” Steve Wantz, a board member, said at the meeting. “I’m getting the sense that the staff would have identified this as a problem previous to this if it was something that needs to be addressed, and we haven’t heard that.”
Garima Chaturvedi, another board member, echoed staff concerns. She said she thought it would be a “major barrier” for community members to reinstitute fines, and also worried about conflicts that may result from staff explaining why some people may be subject to fines and others not.
Overdue fines were originally removed to make the library system’s collections, resources and services “more accessible for all customers,” according to its website.
Carroll County Commissioner Ed Rothstein, who was also at the meeting, said the expected $27,000 in revenue from overdue fines could alleviate some of the library system’s fiscal issues.
Joyce Muller, who was on the board when it was decided to eliminate overdue fines in 2020, said she is worried about harming the public’s trust in the library system if fines are brought back. The board ultimately decided to move the vote on overdue fees to July’s meeting.
Board members voted unanimously to maintain the library system’s current operating hours and not open branches on Sundays.
Berstler said that visits to branches and circulation of materials were both significantly lower on Sundays when the system was open on those days. Visits and circulation are nearly three times as large on all other days of the week, she said during her presentation.
Since the decision was made four years ago to not open on Sundays the system received three emails — two from the same person — expressing concern about the decision, Berstler said.
About 58 of the 105 public libraries in Maryland are closed on Sundays, Berstler added.
If Carroll’s library system opened on Sundays, it would be for five hours, according to Berstler. But the system would have to hire more staff, increase current staff member hours, or close on another day during the week to maintain services, she said.
“We want to make the libraries as accessible as possible and it is a compliment that people want more library time,” Berstler said. “Opening on Sundays without these additional positions really is just going to pull our quality of services down.”
Chaturvedi said there also needs to be more consideration of library staff in the study. If library employees have “no appetite” to “man the library on Sundays,” it wouldn’t be feasible to reinstate the hours, she said.
Board member David O’Callaghan said he thought it would be more useful to spend the money that would be put toward Sunday hours on additional library programming.
“That would be more to what the library customers would want based upon the feedback I get from library users … versus Sunday hours,” he said.
At Thursday’s commissioners meeting, Rothstein presented information about the Wednesday meeting, but no decisions were made about giving the libraries the $80,000 in additional funding previously withheld and no other commissioners commented on Rothstein’s presentation.
The board of trustees is a seven-member policy-making board that develops library policy, establishes rules for operation of branches, and approves the system’s annual budgets. The next Carroll County Public Library Board of Trustees meeting is July 23.
