At a time when metro-area libraries are cutting back hours and threatening to close entire branches because of tax shortfalls, millions of dollars in tantalizing revenue sits on their tables in the form of unpaid fines.
Denver Public Library is overdue more than $4.8 million in fines and replacement fees, while Jefferson County waits for $2 million, and other local libraries ponder the chances of recovering proportional pots of money.
That kind of revenue could run multiple branches for a full year. But collecting the cash from patrons, without scaring off valuable users and violating unwritten rules of library ethics, is another matter.
Denver already has written off $2.8 million of its money as uncollectible because they are such old claims or because the patrons are long gone. For the other $2 million, Denver contracts with a library-specialist collector called Unique Management.
Company and library officials acknowledge, however, that their only real threat is a bad credit report because there’s no legal statute allowing them to go after library users’ assets. Nor would they want to, argue the revenue officials.
“We don’t want to lose customers through our fines,” said Richard Sosa, Denver library finance director.
“There’s a whole debate about the balancing act between collecting fines and restricting access,” Sosa said. “Somebody might be needing that information, and they don’t go into the library because they owe $10. It’s a unique philosophical stand the library takes.”
Unique Management hears the same message from hundreds of library clients around the world and has even trademarked the term “gentle nudge” to describe its collections approach.
In most library systems, only one-half of one percent to 2 percent of cardholders ever hold materials long enough to go to the fine-collection stage, Unique Management’s Kenes Bowling said. “It’s a tiny percentage,” he said, “but it’s astounding the dollar value held by that tiny group of people.”
After libraries have moved to block an offending patron’s card and then referred that person to Unique Management, the company starts with letters. Two weeks after the second letter, they’ll start calls to the home. After three calls with no action, the company reports the customer’s delinquency to all three major credit-reporting agencies, which can hurt the consumer’s chances for home loans or new credit cards.
“About 70 percent of the folks we contact respond,” either by returning materials or paying fines, Bowling said.
The bad economy hasn’t changed company strategy.
“The gentle nudge doesn’t change at all, because it works,” he said. “The relationship these libraries have with their patrons is very precious, and it’s critical they think we’re treating their patrons with respect.”
The bad economy, though, is two sides of a page for libraries and many other government services.
Jefferson County libraries have seen their usage soar as people cut back on book, CD and DVD buying. That pushes up library costs, as well as the outstanding fines whose revenue could help defray those costs.
Jefferson County contracted with Unique Management in April when fines and lost-book fees had grown to more than $2 million, spokeswoman Bethany Frisbie said. The collector has taken in $540,000 since then.
Improving that total “will be even more important next year,” Frisbie said, when the system may take a $1.5 million haircut off its $29 million budget request.
“Libraries are getting used in greater numbers than any time in recent history, and we need money to provide those services,” Frisbie said.
Aurora, which lost a library bond vote earlier this month and may close four of its seven branches, also has a contract with Unique Management to boost collections.
Sosa said Denver library and city finance officials have reviewed their philosophy in depth during the last two difficult budget years. It took a last-minute reversal by the mayor and City Council to restore $911,000 to the next library budget. Of that, $234,300 will keep the threatened Byers Branch Library open another year, and $269,100 restores four Sunday hours at the Central Library.
Library leaders search for what Sosa calls a “balanced scorecard” between the library mission and fiscal reality.
In the end, he said, “we needed to find other efficiencies instead of raising fines or fees. Citizens are also facing hard times, and our library use shot up in the last two years,” Sosa said. “We don’t want to pass on higher costs to them.”
Michael Booth: 303-954-1686 or mbooth@denverpost.com