Gigantic loophole in NLB book loan policies.

[bic_cherry]

Gigantic loophole in NLB book loan policies.

NLB needs to tighten policies to prevent abuse of it's resources.

They say all fines need to be paid before can borrow books.

However, some joker's have unreturned books on their account for month-years, unsettled overdue books on loan but still able to borrow books because 'no fines' just because the actual fine quantum cannot be calculated until the book is finally returned.

Gigantic loophole in National Library Board's (NLB) book loan policies?

My suggestion is that all accounts with any book loan overdue by 3 weeks should be auto suspended until the user reports at the counter, either by returning the overdue loan book or else declaring as lost book and paying for the book, service charge as well as the overdue book fines (currently, the overdue fine of 15¢/day is waived if the patron decides to declare the book as lost, which would probably be a better idea (if the book we're cheaper) if he reports only 2yrs later, by which time the overdue period fines would be 2*365*15¢= $109.50). This kind of gigantic loophole in NLB policies make people abuse NLB services and fail to respect the rights of other patrons who need to access books from NLB (Other patrons need to pay $1.55 to 'reserve' book from another library branch if book at their own branch is unavailable due to irresponsibility of last borrower) by taking their own sweet time to report the book as lost or failure to report altogether.
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From https://www.nlb.gov.sg/visitus/membership.aspx#overdue_fines

3) Fees and Charges

3.1 Overdue Fines
Overdue fines are charged at $0.15 per book/magazine/CD-ROM with accompanying book per day and $0.50 per audio-visual item/e device per day.
Items should be returned before midnight (12.00am) for the stated due date, due items returned after midnight (12.00am) will incur overdue charges.
Your borrowing privileges will be suspended once charges are incurred in your library account. They will be restored once the outstanding fines are settled.

3.2 Lost items
For every item lost/damaged, the member will have to pay the cost of the item lost/damaged, administrative fee of $7.15 per item, and $1.05 for lost/damaged video tape and CD-ROM casing.
Replacements for lost/damaged items will not be accepted.
There will be no refund once payment is made even if the lost item is found later.

 

[bic_cherry]

Ehh i think there is a max fine amount

Don't think there is a maximum fine amount. However, I think the librarians advise users to falsely declare the books as lost to get their overdue fines totally waived. This is what happens when the policies are shallow and conceived from within ivory towers: and thus give both library users and managers a headache.

Problem remains that those with books overdue many months (implying at least $4.50/month, $54.75/year in fines at 15¢/ day rate) are still allowed to borrow books whilst those with just 5¢ in unpaid fines are not allowed to borrow books until fines are completely paid... What a glaring loophole in NLB policy rulebook.
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Library fines cost more than book
PUBLISHED: JUL 23, 2016, 5:01 AM SGT
My daughter borrowed two books from Toa Payoh Public Library in December last year.
She forgot to return the books and we received a reminder from the library this month.
I immediately returned the books and wrote to the library requesting that the penalty of $31.42 be waived, as the late return was not intentional and this was the first time it had happened.
But a library officer called and said I am still required to pay $25. The cost price of the books are around $16.
Now, my children and I have a phobia of borrowing books from public libraries.
I hope the authorities will look into this matter and develop a proper system for helping library users.
Sheeba John (Mrs)

https://www.straitstimes.com/forum/letters-on-the-web/library-fines-cost-more-than-book

 

[bic_cherry]

If lost books then they have to pay for cost of books. This is indeed a "loophole" in the sense that they pay less than the fine. But they have to still pay the cost first before borrowing? Addition: Actually no loophole as if they report the loss AFTER the due date, they still pay the fine instead.

As for paying fines higher than the cost of the books? I think that should be the case as if they have reported the loss of the book earlier (if it is indeed a loss), the books will have been replaced and made available to public earlier. If after numerous reminders (reminders are very frequent based on my experience), not more than half a year after the due date as stated by this Mrs John Sheeba) the borrower still don't return then of course it is the fault of the borrower.

The minimum entitlement is 8 books. There are probably some folks out there who have not returned certain books for many years with theoretically hundreds of dollars of fines but are still able to use the rest of their loan entitlement because until the book is either declared lost or returned, the actual quantum of fines will not be determined, so the user is considered to be owing no $$$ and may continue to borrow books up to his card quota. Yet if they returned the book/ declared it as lost, their account will be frozen until the fines/costs respectively are paid up: so it is better to keep quiet/ ignore the warning letters and pretend that nothing is wrong rather than return the book/ report it's loss: what a travesty of justice.

I think BOTH fines and costs of book (incl $7 admin fee for lost book) should have to be paid and NOT the case of either/or because the earlier the book is declared lost, the earlier it can be replaced. Thus those who delay in declaring books as lost are actually DEPRIVING others of the right to access the particular book title be and should thus be penalized for their inconsideration/ indescretion. In this case, the laws and statutes of Singapore promote selfish and irresponsible library book use.