University Library Fines

proplusplus

hey, just wanted a little help on this please,

i forget to take some books back, cos i thought they were month-loan, and they were in fact week-loan books. the charge is 30p per day, so i got a total fine of a little over £10.

now, generally i accept the charges as it's only 30p or 50p on only a couple of occassions over the last 3.5 years.

but at the moment, i'm skint, and dont really want to be paying £10 in charges i think are unfair.

can anyone shed any light onto this?

i was wandering if it was similar to the bank charges post, whereby under a contract, punitive charges must reflect administrative costs.

at £10 - they've not actually incurred any loss, or administrative costs, and they are obscure books which no-one else is likely to have needed - they certainly wern't recalled or even reserved which is what happens if somebody wants/needs the book.

any help appreciated cheers!

proplusplus

ffeindadifyr

Have you tried going to the library and asking them if they can forgive you this time as you made a mistake - I found my Unis library quite good in this situation!

Although it will help if you have a good record with the library.

fran_from_willesden

Would it depend on who you got in the library?? In my library, a fine is a fine, regardless of how obscure the book may be. Keeping an eye on the due date is up to you, although Newcastle Uni Libraries send out an automatic email when your due date is approaching.

mandi

Ask them if they ll accept a £1 a week.. and in the meantime stay out of the bar...............

elisebutt65

Our Library charges 50p per day on 7 day loans and a whopping £1 on 3 day loans. We keep bringing it up at Student rep meetings and they never back down on this.

I suppose it is fairish seeing as someone might be waiting for the books urgently - but they don't lose out financially over it ???

We also can't get any further books out until the fine is paid off so we can't defer payment :mad:

pavlovs_dog

it wouldnt be so bad if they made it clearer how they used this stealth tax to further benefits all students.

the state of the books themselves, and the complete lack of order of said books for my main subject is a disgrace. i dont see them rushing to spend fines on doing anything about it :rolleyes:

elisebutt65

Not to mention the fact that they never have any copies of the ones that are the essential list - I now order them from my local library as it's only a quid and I can have them out for 3 x 3weeks!!

It's so annoying that they always say that there's a reference copy - well I live 30 miles + away and I have to get home to pick up the kids - i can't be sitting in the library all day making notes on everything - I have to take them home so I can read the things properly!!!

lara1983

Really surprised at how unreasonable that seems. At Oxford Uni, only the biggest books are confined in the lending libraries, my college library allows books to be taken out for the whole term and then renew them for the whole holiday if need be, the fines are only 10p per day after that. Even the subject libraries only charge 10-20p per day and there's no such thing as a three day loan. And we can renew up to three times online. Maybe it just depends on the scarcity of books, and if they desperately need them back for others because they don't have enough copies in the first place.
Also, I often request books to be added to my college library by filling in a slip - if others know they'll be needing an obscure book, it might be worth trying this, as long as you know what book it'll be well in advance.

mr_fishbulb

proplusplus wrote:

i was wandering if it was similar to the bank charges post, whereby under a contract, punitive charges must reflect administrative costs.

at £10 - they've not actually incurred any loss, or administrative costs, and they are obscure books which no-one else is likely to have needed - they certainly wern't recalled or even reserved which is what happens if somebody wants/needs the book.

The fine is propably because if the bookes had been out, the had the potential to be on loan to someone else. Someone could have missed out because you didn't bring them back.

I personally wouldn't want people to take the books out longer than they were allowed, and then dispute the fine so esentially take them out as long as they wanted for no fee. The lending period is there to benefit all who want to borrow the book, and the fine is to enforce it.

Count yourself lucky. I once kept 2 24 hour books for a week by mistake. Cost me 2 x £30!

ILoveHenryJames

proplusplus wrote:

but at the moment, i'm skint, and dont really want to be paying £10 in charges i think are unfair.

I fully appreciate what you are saying. However, the fines act as a deterrent for those wanting to keep books longer than permitted thereby denying other students their use. It is quite unfair when one cannot find a book due to someone keeping it indefinitely.

Just go and say you made a mistake, this should work.

jobbingmusician

At the LSE, when I was there, the fine was £1 per HOUR for some books!!!!!!!!!!