Borrowing Trouble : County Libraries Turn to Collection Agencies to Get Overdue Books, Fines

Fines for overdue library books may no longer be a minor annoyance, especially if the books have been borrowed from Los Angeles County Public Library branches in an area that sweeps from Agoura Hills through the Santa Clarita Valley and into La Canada Flintridge.

The county has contracted with a collection agency to track down scofflaw borrowers in the northern county region to get them to bring back overdue books and pay their fines. Last year, nearly 15,000 books worth approximately $273,000 disappeared from the shelves of the north county branches of the 91-branch county library system, officials said.

Beginning this month, when a county library book is overdue by more than 30 days in the designated area, the borrower’s name will be turned over to Advanced Collection Systems/Weldon and Associates, a firm that specializes in persuading delinquent borrowers to return overdue books to libraries.

Series of Letters

Advanced Collection then sends strongly worded letters to borrowers requesting that the book be returned and that the fine be paid. The agency stops short of sending out a repo man to the borrower’s home, but it has the power to add unpaid fines to the borrower’s credit history. The fine appears as an uncollected debt owed to Los Angeles County.

If the unpaid fine belongs to a youngster, the uncollected debt notice is attached to the parent’s credit record.

Tough tactics? Sure, but last year the county library system lost nearly $600,000 worth of books and other library materials. And each year it spends about one-third of its $5-million budget earmarked for acquisition of new books for replacement of library materials, officials said.

If the collection agency reduces the overdue library book problem in the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valley areas, library officials said they may expand the program countywide.

The county library system is not the only one plagued by the problem of overdue books. This “is the dirty little secret of the library world,” said a spokeswoman for the American Library Assn. “Public libraries are supposed to be the universities of the people. In too many instances, they have become a free source of books.”

Large, multibranch systems, which have been slow to install computerized security systems because of the high cost, usually have more of a problem with unreturned books than do small single-branch libraries.

Nonfiction Books

Nonfiction books, especially car repair manuals, college texts and test preparation guides, are most likely to be kept illegally for extended periods. High-gloss, expensive art books also are frequently not returned to library bookshelves.

Librarians said they have heard every excuse in the book about why a borrower was late in returning library materials. “Books drop off motorcycles. Ex-wives take books with them when they move out, and people just forget they’ve got the materials,” said Mark Garofalo, a county library administrator based in West Covina.

One man, who sheepishly returned an armload of books on childbirth and pregnancy that were five months overdue, told librarians he failed to return the books on time because his wife still had not given birth, Garofalo said.

‘Shocking’ Number

The number of missing books “might be shocking to people not close to libraries,” said Roy Hanson, head of the library’s fiscal services section. But for years, libraries tolerated high rates of overdue books as “just a part of doing business,” he said.

That day is over. In this era of austerity in public budgets, county officials said too much money was being spent to replace books. Traditional methods of mailing polite notices to holders of overdue books were not working. And county library fines, which range from 15 cents a day for adult books and 5 cents a day for children’s books, were not stiff enough to get users to return materials on time.

To get their books back--and force people to pay the fines--the county’s quiet, genteel librarians turned to the rough-and-tumble, no-nonsense world of collection agencies.

In 1987, with the approval of the Board of Supervisors, the librarians hired Advanced Collection to develop a pilot program for the 18 county library branches that serve communities such as West Covina, Baldwin Park, El Monte and Rowland Heights.

The system’s eastern region was selected as a test site because its problems with unreturned books paralleled the problems of the entire system. The area had a high overdue rate, it used about one-third of its book-buying budget to replace missing materials, and many borrowers ignored overdue notices.

The belief among library officials was that if Advanced Collection could solve the eastern region’s problems, it probably could solve the entire system’s problems.

Advanced Collection had proven itself in Glendale, Alhambra, San Bernardino and in cities in the South and Midwest, library officials said.

Public Perception

“People realize when a collection agency enters the picture, things have changed. It becomes more serious,” said Wanda H. Weldon, who heads the firm’s library collection service.

The firm’s methods also proved successful in the county library’s system’s eastern region, Garofalo said. In the first year, nearly 8,300 delinquent borrowers returned $155,000 worth of books and magazines, and paid $73,000 in fines. Publicity about the collection agency helped reduce overdue books by 15% to 40%, depending on the branch, he added.

The system established by the company starts at the library. Once a book is 21 days overdue, county librarians send the borrower a notice. At the bottom of the note, the borrower is informed that if library’s material is not returned and the fine paid, the information will be sent to a collection agency.

If the books are not returned in 10 to 15 days, librarians forward the borrower’s name and address to the collection agency.

The borrower has two more months to return the library books and pay the fine. If there is still no response, Advanced Collection reports the unpaid fine to credit rating services and the debt is added to the borrower’s credit history.

Adding unpaid fines to a borrower’s credit rating has gotten results, said Mary Miller, an eastern county library administrator. One day, an angry patron who said he could not qualify for a mortgage loan until he paid his library fine, stormed into the West Covina branch, returned the borrowed books and flung his check on the library counter, she said.

Some Disagree

All librarians are not enamored of the idea of using a collection agency to recapture overdue books. The 62-branch Los Angeles City library system decided against hiring a collection agency. City librarians said they believed their recently installed automated security system would do enough to reduce theft. Also, the city library system has a full-time investigator who goes after people holding large numbers of overdue books.

County librarians, however, flush with the collection agency’s success in the eastern region, decided to expand the program to the northern county area, where retrieving materials and getting fines paid has become a growing challenge, officials said.

Librarians at the Valencia branch report mailing 300 to 400 overdue notices each week. Last year, the Agoura Hills branch lost 1,380 books worth almost $26,000. Almost 40% of the unreturned materials were adult nonfiction books, according to county records.

“We’re trying to present the addition of a collection agency in a positive light because it is for the community,” said Joan Saller, acting community library manager in Valencia. “We want the books back so the materials will be available to as many people as possible.”