Late fees

FARK.com just posted a link for this article about a man who returned a book 47 years late, and paid a whopping $171.32 in fines. Not bad. I owe work about half that for books I had out years ago. They’re being nice and ignoring that fact until I retire. At least I returned the books…

Now, fines can be a big deal. People get all bent out of shape about them. I’m not inclined to care why you’re whining about it. Not only did we give you our material (or someone else’s material in the case of the various inter-library loans available) for a month, plus a 10-day grace period. Unless, of course, the book was recalled because someone else needs it badly.

Fines get handled a few ways, depending on who you are. Undergrad students get their fines shunted off to business services, where Mommy and Daddy can pay for them. Grad students get “extended time”, which means their books are due until the end of the academic year. So, anything the checked out since last September won’t be due until near the end of April. (I managed to convince them to give me XT as well. Makes things easy for someone like me, who already has 40+ items out.) Alumni, local residents (both of whom get free accounts), and state residents (who have to pay $60 per year) have fines that just sit on their accounts. We can’t do anything about getting that money, no matter how much it is, unless they come back and want to take something else out. Then they have to pay first.

Books, on the other hand, we will hunt you down for if they aren’t returned. This includes keeping you from officially graduating if you’re a student.