University Library Fines

Savvy_Sue

girders wrote:

As Ringo said above - lots of Universities will not allow you to graduate with any library fines or halls fees outstanding - don't mess with the library!

Hah! When I worked in university admin, you could not SIT your exams unless you'd cleared all debts to uni! If you then ran up more fines or anything like that, THEN they wouldn't release results!

aimeelister

I got charged by our library and I asked my supervisor to write a letter saying that i needed the books for that amount of time to do my course and if they had been needed then i would of course had returned them nut in the mean time it would have been a waste of time renewing them and or returning them for a day and then borrowing them again. The library let me off my fine!

gems_4

When I started uni they charged for overdue books, then they changed there policy to a point policy so if you had a certain number of points you just got banned and could not take any books out. This was actually pretty effective, you need the books, you use the books and you bring them back on time, as there are always other people out there that need them too!

Bella_b

My uni is the same. The fines are about 35p a day, but there are different types of loans.. if the book is on a reading list it is more popular so usually likely to be only a week loan or 24 hour loan. The maximum loan is a 2 week one, so no month loan like in normal libraries. However, most unis have an online renewal system so it is easy to renew books unless other students have reserved them. I also get emailed if the dates to take them back are approaching or if I have books overdue. If the charges are over £5 my uni doesnt let a student take out a book until the fine is paid off! (Unless you use the self issue machines!) :rotfl:

Quiet_Life

Do Uni libraries have an obligation to post the conditions of lending and fines etc when a student is taking a book out?
My daughter had to pay a hefty fine when she returned a book to be informed that you are charged by the hour when the book is overdue, yet another faculty's library charges by the day. No where was there a sign in this library advising of their particular conditions of loan.

surfcat

It is likely if the book was on an hour-long loan period then you would be fined by the hour.

Perhaps someone could launch a 'claim back you unfair library fines' with the office of fair trading?

saintstreaky

Quiet Life

I'm sure that at some point your daughter signed a 'user agreement', on which should have been stated the fines that could be charged. Of course, she probably did this along with a gazillion other forms when she was enrolling!

If the fines from this faculty's library are different (which seems unlikely - it was probably a different type of loan, hour-long instead of day/week/month-long) she should check what the user agreement actually said. The library assistant should be able to show/give her a copy.

Even having signed the agreement (whilst I find it extremely surprising that the fines aren't posted anywhere) if that really is the case I think she has a justifiable complaint. I'm not sure it's a legal requirement, but it's certainly bad practice not to.

jennybear

My uni library does 4 hour loans and its a pound an hour for every hour overdue, imagine leaving that one over a weekend...The other books are a pound a day but once the fines reach £5 then all of your computer accounts and the barcode on your student card freezes so you cant do anything until you have got the fines down to under £5!

StudentSaver_2

The front page of this week's Courier, Newcastle Uni's student newpaper reads:

£456,000...the amount our Uni's libraries have taken in fines in the last FIVE years

[Deleted User]

One day, some of those students will wake up and take personal responsibility for themselves. If you don't take a library book back in time, you get find. Simple system. If you want to renew it, just phone the library or take it in. I had books for months at a time by just popping in with them and renewing them (unless someone had reserved them)