As of January 2, the Newton Free Library has stopped charging fines on late returns or renewals. With this policy change, the Newton Free Library joins the 85% of Massachusetts libraries that no longer charge late fees, in line with a growing national trend to eliminate fines on overdue materials.
Library users are still responsible for returning borrowed materials, and the Library will still charge fees for unreturned, lost, or damaged materials. The Library will bill users for materials that are at least four weeks overdue, and such bills will be cleared upon return of the materials.
The Library says that it is eliminating late fees to help close opportunity gaps based on income and to remove the disparity between borrowing physical materials vs. digital materials (e-books and e-audio books), for which late fees have not been charged. The Library notes that there is not a significant difference in return rates between libraries that charge late fees and those that do not. The Library’s own experience has born this out, as return rates have remained essentially the same since the Library removed late fees for children’s and young adult items in 2021.
