Library Closures Lead to Confusion Over Fines

Library cardholders may be justifiably confused.

Those who had books checked out from a San Fernando Valley library when the earthquake closed the city system branches were told to keep them at home until the branches reopened.

Yet in the ensuing weeks and months, notices were sent warning that fines were owed for overdue books.

For those who ignored those notices, a second warning was issued saying they were being billed for the cost of the book, now considered lost.

Now wait a minute. Who do you believe? The library? Or, uh, the library?

The library would like you to stop worrying. No one will be fined. And this will not go down on your permanent record. Books can be returned to any open branch, but, library officials say, people don’t really have to.

The fine notices are being printed by a computer system that will be replaced in the next six months. The problem is, the old program can’t be overridden. Library officials can’t tell the computer not to issue fines from the branches damaged in the earthquake.

“In the old system if a book isn’t returned, it spits out an overdue notice,” said Robert Reagan, libraries spokesman. “With the old system, you can’t get in there and disregard these branches.”

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So, at a cost of 50 cents each, two notices were sent out to each person with a book from any branch closed after the Jan. 17 earthquake. Nine branches in the San Fernando Valley remain closed, according to library officials.

“Anybody who wants to can take their book and their overdue notice to an open branch and have their record cleared,” Reagan said. But those who would rather just hold on to their books can wait until their local branch reopens, he added.

“We’ll go in and clean the records after the branches are opened,” Reagan said. “Nobody is going to be done dirt. Their credit won’t be ruined.”

Reagan said library officials have no idea how many unnecessary notices were sent out, and therefore, can’t estimate how much printing and mailing the unnecessary notices cost the city.

“There’s no way to extract from overall notices that went out which ones were for closed branches,” he said. “We can’t even tell you how many books are out from any given branch because under this present system you would have to take the shelf list and take the inventory of the books.”

The West Valley branch in Reseda, the busiest in the city and one of those closed after the earthquake, averaged 22,000 to 23,000 books in circulation on any given day, said Librarian Chris Parsons. Which would mean that for that branch alone, the city spent $22,000 or $23,000 to mail the notices. Officials in other closed branch libraries in the Valley couldn’t be reached for circulation.

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And library workers couldn’t just not mail notices to the affected areas, Reagan pointed out.

“Because you happen to live in Woodland Hills does not mean you took the book out of Woodland Hills. What shows on the overdue notice is your name and address. You have to get to the rest of the form to find out the rest of the information,” he said, adding that the rest of the form is in the computer and not accessible.

“I think in the scope of the things that have happened in the wake of the earthquake, this probably isn’t a huge expenditure.”

For more information about which branches remain closed, call (213) 228-7104 for a recording in English and Spanish.