Objective
When I started at Brandeis Library I inherited and fines and fees system that was overly punitive ($5/hour on all item from a flash drive to a laptop) and resulted in a lot of forgiven fines. Through a reorganization of fines, specifically on technology equipment, we were able to keep these vital resources available to more of the community.
My Role
As the public services technology coordinator, it was my technology equipment collection that was the main target for the fine and fee reorganization. I created the fine structure that is listed below and advocated for it throughout the approval process.
Outcomes and Implementation
The first step in the process was to lay out a new fine structure. From the flat $5/hour or $5/day structure for all item types we moved to the following structure:
Fine Structure
| Item type | Fine amount per hour | Maximum fine |
|---|---|---|
| General 4-hour loans | $0.25/hour | $40.00 |
| Charger 4-hour loans | $0.50/hour | $40.00 |
| General 24-hour loans | $0.50/hour | $40.00 |
| Laptops 24-hour loans | $2.00/hour | $100.00 |
| 3-day loans | $0.50/day | $40.00 |
| General 7-day loans | $0.50/day | $40.00 |
| Laptops 7-day loans | $5.00/day | $100.00 |
After that was signed off on by multiple stakeholders (including the University Librarian and Provost), we were able to implement the changes to fulfillment units in Alma.