Charlton Library Sends Police To Collect Overdue Books From 5-Year-Old
CHARLTON (CBS) – A Charlton mom says her local library crossed the line when they sent police to collect her daughter’s overdue library books.
Her mom says the 5-year-old girl was so afraid that she burst into tears.
Technically the police officer stopped by to remind the family that the books were overdue, and the library could just as easily have sent a court summons. The family claims they never got any notice that the books were overdue, but it's hard to imagine this being a first line of action from the library. While this is certainly not limited to Massachusetts by any means, it's a stark reminder that even the most minor transgressions are resolved the same as severe ones when the state is the aggressor: by sending men with guns to your home.
Granted, this is certainly an extreme case, and the news report doesn't give many specifics about the case. They get a quick note from the family claiming to have never received any notice, but nothing from the library - it's certainly not as sensational a story if the library sent out half a dozen notices. Does it merit bringing in the police? On a fiscal and PR level it seems a bad idea - something tells me it cost more to send the officer to the home than the fine on the books, and the library just bought themselves far more than a couple books' worth of fines in bad publicity. Something tells me there's at least one family that won't be voting for any library overrides for the rest of forever...
I did find this quote interesting:
They found and returned the books, but Hailey’s mom argues that sending a cop to their house was like pounding a ten penny nail with a sledge hammer.
Precisely - that's exactly what the state does...
That is all.
9 comments:
My daughter forgot to return a library book to the library here in Kalifornia. We received no notice that the book was overdue until we received a phone call from the debt collection agency that they turned our $2.60 account over to.
I guess I'm glad they didn't send over a swat team to collect.
A perfect example of how all interaction with the State involves violence.
Have you priced books lately? If someone walks off with two or three books, they've gotten $100 worth, likely as not.
My wife is a Librarian, and I hear the horror stories from that end. When 10% or so of your new books disappear within the first year of acquisition, that costs money. And some folks will insist that they were never notified about the books, even when they signed for a registered letter reminding them. Someone who will steal library books will lie about it, too, usually.
Sorry, but checking out library books and not returning them is just as much theft as shoplifting is, and a polite (emphasis on "polite) visit from an Officer to remind someone of that is hardly overkill, after a certain amount of time has passed.
"A perfect example of how all interaction with the State involves violence."
I can't vouch for that, but I have noticed that every piece of paper I get from the state of New York has a threat on it, usually right below the signature line. (You know, "penalty of perjury" and all that jazz.)
I find it surprising that the SWAT team passed up an opportunity to hone their skills.
I would expect that over due books and fines would be handled in small claim court and not by the criminal justice system.
The exception would be if the young lady signed out Unintended Consquences, then send everydody!
Gerry
Now that is just totally over the top... sigh
Now, if this is your first ever overdue book you could probably go to the circulation desk and bat your eyes at a librarian and they'll clear the fines off your card, as long as you're returning the book. (We don't want the fine, we want the book back. Seriously.) But keeping library material indefinitely is indeed theft, and I'd be willing to bet that this woman (and her daughter) are repeat offenders. Happens all the time - hundreds of dollars of fines on multiple library cards for a family of two, dozens of "lost" items. One of the most clever schemes is when they swear up and down that they've already returned an item and it's now OUR fault the item is missing. What they don't know is that we keep track of their "claims returned" on their library card record.
So I've got to call bullshit on the mother's claim that she never received notice from the library. Perhaps they had moved and never updated their address on their library card record, but I'm sure that if that library sends notices a notice was sent. However, returning materials is the patron's responsibility, with or without reminders from the library. If the library decides that a collection agency (or in the case of MA libraries, the cops) is their first course of action, then so be it.
You knew the deal when you signed up for a library card.
Nope.
We took the book back to the library, along with the $2.60 we owed in overdue fees. The librarian was happy to take the book, and carry on a friendly chat with my daughter, until she tried to pay the $2.60 she owed. Then things changed. The librarian would not take the money, that had to be sent to the the collection agency.
My daughter stood there with the money in her hand while my wife pulled out her cell phone called the collection agency and asked the librarian to tell them that she had the money now so they could stop calling us. Sorry the system doesn't work that way.
First they both had to endure a very stern lecture about personal responsibility and honesty from a librarian who had clicked over to total bitch mode, we had to go get a cashiers check for $2.60 and send it (certified mail) to the collection agency. total cost of this adventure $2.60 + $2.00 (for the check) + $2.80 (certified mail) = $7.40. Plus standing in lines at the bank and the post office. And the complete humiliation of a young teenaged girl.
The kicker - the library had loaned my daughter two other books (my wife was with her each time) after the overdue book was listed as overdue and no one had said anything like "Do you have your overdue book?" or "How about you return the overdue book before we let you check out any more books."
My wife and I thought we were angry over all this. But my 14 year old daughter's reaction stunned us. She has been taught that you are going to make mistakes in life and when you do - you accept it, fix it, apologize and move on. Which was what she tried to do. But the library turning her over to a collection agency over $2.60 without even trying to collect the $2.60 themselves, and then chewing her out they way they did when she tried to fix it, was too much for her.
She returned the two books she had out - unread. She canceled her Friends of the Library membership. She refuses to do volunteer work at their semi annual book sales any more. She no longer helps with their regular "save the library" projects. She collected everyone in the family's library cards, cut them up and mailed them back to the library. She has developed relationships with her high school librarian and her old middle school librarian (who are both shocked at the way this was handled) so she can work at their libraries and they get the books she wants to read for her. And she tells anyone who will listen "Let the public library be shut down - they are too stupid to stay open."
So yeah, they didn't send a swat team to our house to collect. But to my 14 year old daughter, they may as well have.
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