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Comanche Public Library Mr. John P. Hastings Director of Library Services Paris Public Library Paris, Texas 75460 . Dear John: P. 0. Box 411 Comanche, Texas 76442 30 June 1978 I am glad to hear from you and hope you are settling in and liking your new job. I really do not think I can help you with writing a no -fine policy. If you do something practical and useful, I sure want to see it. We have never made a formal policy statement about fines. The Commissioners have never paid any attention to what we did about this since it never brings any revenue of note. They never knew whether we charged fines or when we Quit. Actually, we did stop during the move to our new building. We were so confused, it seemed best to declare amnesty for everyone and we did. It is my personal theory that a library fine system for us amounts to nothing more than collecting small change from kids. Often, this gets the child in more trouble at home than he gets in at the library and a parent will forbid another visit regardless of who pays the fine. Those who think they owe a large fine usually will not pay it, will not come in, won't return the book, and usually disappear from our scene. This usually ends in the loss of the books which cost lots more to replace than a piddling fine. Since there is no penalty, we do not hesitate to hound people with overdue books. We call or write pretty promptly a time or two. Then we sometimes go out and pick up the books if possible. If the calling, writing, or other efforts to get things returned become a burden to us, we just cancel their card and explain why if they °come in again. We aren't really tough but the key to all this is the fact that most of our patrons are reliable. We do lose a few things but not nearly like what we hear 6f from other libraries with horror stories. Percentage wise our losses each year and just not that much.