MANAGING OVERDUES: Facts From Four Studies

Abstract

Historically, librarians have resorted to short‐term, charitable, punitive, and legalistic means to resolve the mounting problems associated with overdues—materials unreturned from circulation. In their quest to retrieve overdues we hear and read reports of librarians confronting delinquent borrowers by sending staff to private homes, filing criminal charges or claims in small claims court, engaging credit collection agencies, sending overdue notices as Western Union Mailgrams, conducting “fine free” amnesty days for return of all overdue materials, and offering rewards for returning books. There is an air of desperation in these moves. Despite that desperation, however, while anecdotal accounts pepper the pages of library literature, there is surprisingly little hard evidence that can guide policy decisions to lessen the probability of unreturned materials.