Library fines that is...my family is kind of known for them.When we were little, we weren't the kind of family that went to the library and each kid got like 3 books. Oh no, each kid got like 20 books. And this is no exaggeration! We had a "library basket" that I'm pretty sure was a laundry basket. Not one of those huge ones, but those smaller square ones. We always had so many books that my mom would keep the list that the library prints out for you, and we'd check them off one by one, to make sure we had them all. There was that many of them.
Anyway, we'd pack up and head to library, were all of us would spend an hour or so picking out the multitude of books we wanted to take home. We'd get them home, and promptly devour as many possible in one sitting.
Now you'd think with being able to have library books for 3 weeks, that we could have gotten them all read in time. Most of the time we did, or came pretty close to it, but then there was the matter of getting them back on time. That seemed to be a problem for the family. Even if most of the books got returned on time, there was so many books at our house that it wasn't uncommon to lose one or two (or leave them out in the rain...Adam and Wendi).
I can recall checking out books for myself at the library only to find a nearly $30 fine on my card! Yeah, and those fines are only like 5 cents a day per book. I'm pretty sure my family single handedly supported the local libraries with our fines.
Anyway, the point of this whole story is that I seem to have my mother's tendency to forget to take library books back. You'd think it wouldn't be a problem. I mean, it's just me at home, and I've been sitting at home for weeks not really doing anything. Nonetheless, I returned my library books (all 10 of them) about 2 weeks late. With no other excuse than that I forgot about them.
I'm blaming it on my upbringing.
10 comments:
Hmm...I see you conveniently left your readers to do the math on the fines. Was that so your husband wouldn't have these numbers readily at hand? :-)
haha... wow. I have a problem with fines too, but I usually don't check out that many at a time... :)
Now if you used the library in Indy, you would get an email notifying you that your books, videos, etc are due in 3 days. At that time, you can log into your account and renew all of them if you don't feel like going to the library or haven't read or watched them yet. If they are not renewable, they will tell you and of course, you must return them. You will also get an email the day that they are due to remind you. This has cut down on our fines significantly. There have been a couple of times that the book/video had slid under the car seat and I have insisted when talking with the library that I indeed did return the item, only to find it later. Of course, there are fines for that. Have you library call my library!
Aunt Sandy G
haha yeah i have a problem with fines as well. i hadn’t been to the library in 10 months or so and when i checked out i had a $10.60 fine. i'm trying to do better...
So my kids each get 10 books. Do you know what that adds up to? And I'm terrible-TERRIBLE at this too.
Let's just say that our double-digit fine last time was a little more than embarrassing.
I consider it a donation to a good cause.
It is sad when you could buy the books for less than what you pay on fines! Not fun to check out and find you have a fine and WHO takes cash with them to the library? Not me. I've learned that as soon as I get home I take my datebook out and write the due date(s) in there. It doesn't always work, but it helps. And when it doesn't, I'm with Abby and consider it a donation to a good cause!
Not to freak anyone out, but supposedly if you are a chronic late-finer (even at libraries) it can cause a small dent in your credit score. is this true?? I don't know, but rumor has it. It takes me FOREVER to read a book, so I get one at a time and it's usually way over due because it takes me one month instead of 2 weeks to read. oh well!!!
As a librarian myself, bless all of you who pay your fines peaceably. And just a note, Heidi...someday when you have several kids and you check out laundry baskets full of books...just don't return them right before closing time! They're not that fun to shelve! :D Your post made me laugh, though. I think the only reason I DON'T have overdue books is because I work there so I'm in the library once a week. I'm sure my day will come! :D
Oh...and renewing your books online is great, too! :)
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