The Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy, a period in which Pope Francis called on Catholics to “find the joy (of) rediscovering and rendering fruitful God’s mercy, with which we are all called to give comfort to every man and every woman of our time,” comes to a close on Nov. 20.
But in the spirit of forgiveness, the DePaul library and the Student Government Association (SGA) collaborated to offer temporary late-book fine amnesty to students, faculty, staff, and alumni regardless of how long the materials have been overdue from Nov. 7 to Nov. 13.
“The primary focus is to explore educational resources and to work with faculty to encourage their uses in courses,” DePaul librarian Scott Walter said. “As opposed to more expensive commercial options, this seemed like another way in which we could contribute to that effort.”
The upcoming change was posted on the DePaul Library website where users may also review their accounts for fines and/or overdue materials. Students were very receptive in the idea and plan to take full-advantage.
DePaul junior Will Estus said the fine forgiveness was a positive way to encourage students who still have overdue books to make the trip to Richardson Library.
“I think it is great having a student’s fines be forgiven on a late return — depending on how long it is overdue — because sometimes all a person needs is a couple extra days,” Estus said. “This will not only give students extra time on returning their books, but it will also give them a deadline as to when is the last day to return books without a fine.”
In 1996, DePaul provided a fine amnesty that also collaborated with SGA. Fines were forgiven for those who returned their materials with a can of food or other contribution for a food drive. During that week, the library pardoned more than $2,000 in fines and 668 books were returned.
Walter said the library expects a similar response and enthusiasm from the DePaul community with the return of the program.
“Our collection is larger and more diverse than it was in 1996, and the DePaul community is also larger, so we hope we will see at least as many returns through this program as we did in ‘96,” Walter said.
The Chicago Public Library and Los Angeles Public Library hosted similar successful programs in 2012 and over 100,000 items were returned in total. In exchange for pardons, library users could attract engagement within communities.
The Queens Library in New York hosted a youth program, “Read Down Your Fees,” in which users were assigned vouchers for hours of reading that could be used to eliminate fines and fees.
“I think it’s really great that the library is having this amnesty program,” DePaul junior Sergio Hernandez said. “I think it’s really easy to forget about a book and easy to rack up fees (before returning) it. I feel like a lot of students would be nervous or reluctant to return a book if they had to pay a lot to return it.”
Walter said the library will consider offering a similar fine amnesty program to those involved in charitable efforts in the future.
“We tied this year’s program to our broader engagement with SGA in exploring educational affordability, but a future program could be associated with a broader charitable effort or with DePaul’s broader efforts at community engagement or service learning,” Walter said. “We will definitely keep that in mind for the future.”