HOUSTON — Soon, you may not have to pay a fine for returning a book late to a Houston public library.
The Houston City Council is set to vote on Wednesday on whether to get rid of overdue fees, effective immediately.
“We’ve worked with our financial department. We wanted to make sure this made sense. We’ve been planning for this for a while," Julie Mintzer, the communications director for Houston Public Library, said.
Experts believe getting rid of the fees could actually mean more visitors to the library and more books returned.
Mintzer said that outstanding late fees for Houston's public library system typically total around $60,000 a year.
While the fines may seem small individually, Mintzer said they're often a big reason young people avoid the library.
“Whether or not their parents tell them not to check out books because they can’t afford those fines or… they know they don’t have the money, so they don’t go ahead and get the resources from the library, we want to remove those barriers, really welcome people of all income levels back to the library," she said.
Public libraries in other major cities have already eliminated late fees.
"What are some of the success stories that you've seen from other cities with this?" KHOU 11's Adam Bennett asked Mintzer.
"We know that Chicago had about a 240% increase in book returns when they instituted this," Mintzer replied.
While Houston Public Library would still collect fees on lost, damaged or stolen books, it would waive those fees, along with any late fines Houstonians already owe, during an amnesty period that would run from January 17 to February 18.
Now, it's up to City Council to decide whether to implement these changes.