I have never, as far as I remember, been fined for overdue library books. I’ve always returned the books or renewed them if I can’t bring them back in time. My local service has now abolished fines for overdue library books for adults (they already did this for children) and all existing fines are cancelled. This is to remove barriers to the service; some people are apparently put off from borrowing at all, for fear of fines. It may also result in long-overdue books being returned, a book amnesty of sorts. The downsides are, I think, the loss of income to the library (although I don’t know if libraries tend to make much from fines) and that some customers will undoubtedly keep their books well past the due date, denying others the chance to read them. Thinking about it carefully, it’s probably the right choice. Library fines seem a little old-fashioned, belonging to an era of silent reading rooms with shh-ing librarians, card catalogue indexes and ink-stamping the due dates. Public libraries have changed and the more people who feel comfortable using them, the better. Anything that encourages people to read is worth trying, and this includes abolishing overdue fees. What do you think?