YORBA LINDA : Library Panel to Hire Collection Agency

If you’ve been ignoring those polite letters from the library reminding you to return library materials and pay overdue fines, watch out.

The next round of letters might not be as polite and won’t be from the library. Also, they will add $15 to your fine.

The City Council last week approved a plan by the Library Commission to hire a collection agency to go after an estimated 300 library patrons who did not return more than 2,000 books, tapes and other materials to the library during the 1992-93 fiscal year.

Library Director CarolAnn Tassios said the cost of replacing the unreturned items was about $33,000. She did not know how much in uncollected fines the library had lost during that period.

Patrons with overdue materials and fines will still receive two notices from the library, Tassios said. But patrons with materials or fines totaling $50 or more who don’t respond to the notices will be turned over to Advanced Collection Systems Inc.

The collection agency will send out five notices to delinquent patrons. Those who don’t respond after the first three notices will be reported to TRW, a credit agency.

Tassios said credit reports would be cleared of the library debt eventually whether or not patrons respond to the notices.

Yorba Linda was one of the few libraries in the state not contracting with a collection agency to retrieve unreturned materials. In a report to the City Council, Tassios said other libraries have experienced an average return rate of 70% when using a collection agency.

“Since library staff currently spends 12% of the materials budgets on replacing lost items, using a collection agency will allow the budget to be spent almost entirely on purchase of new titles,” the report said.

The cost to the library of contracting with the collection agency is $8.25 per delinquent patron. Library staff time will add about $10.50 to that figure. To cover a portion of the total, the library will add a $15 collection fee to all accounts turned over to ACS.

The new procedure goes into effect July 1. However, Tassios said the library will not turn over any accounts to ACS until August.