SPRINGDALE -- Officials with Springdale Public Library plan to put policy changes regarding fines and borrowing into effect Monday that the board of directors won't vote on publicly until June 16.
The library's board approved the changes May 19 through email, said Marcia Ransom, director of the library. The vote couldn't be done at the board's meeting because there wasn't a quorum, she said.
WEB WATCH
To read more about policies at the Springdale Public Library, go to springdalelibrary.o…, hover over “About the Library” in the upper green bar and click on “Policies” in the drop down menu.
However Ernest Cate, Springdale city attorney, said city boards and commissions must take action in public, and email is not considered as such. Responding to that concern, Ransom said the board will vote publicly to accept the resolution about the changes at its next meeting, which is June 16.
The library's website states the seven members of the board are appointed by the mayor with approval from City Council.
The board doesn't have a hired attorney, Ransom said, but she did discuss the board's email vote with Cate after the concern about it arose.
The changes Ransom said will be instituted Monday lower one fee, allow some DVD renewals and allow library members to check out more items from each category of materials.
People with library cards have been able to check out 30 items, but there were restrictions of only five items from each category of materials at one time, Ransom said. The restrictions on the categories will be lifted, and visitors will be able to check out a total of 30 items with no restriction on how many items come from each category.
A couple of examples the categories are books on CD and music CDs.
Ransom said people have wanted access to more materials for a long time. Some people would return their five items from a category and then proceed to check out five more from that category. This could help, for example, with checking on recordings of television shows.
Kimberly Porter, a Fayetteville resident who's been using the library for a month, was looking at DVDs at the library with her daughter Thursday afternoon. She said she's checked out television series DVDs and had to return them to get the next episodes. There was no guarantee the rest of the episodes would be there, she said.
Fayetteville residents can check out material from the Springdale Public Library, because the library is part of the Washington County Library System.
Judy Lovegrove, a Springdale resident, said her grandchildren will like the change. She explained her grandchildren don't have cable, watch a lot of DVDs and go to the library two to three days a week to check some out.
"That'll make them happy to get more movies," she said.
Lovegrove said her oldest grandson watches a television show called NCIS and will watch many episodes in a row. The policy, however, didn't allow him to check out a large number of the DVDs for the series at one time.
Officials were able to make the change because the library's collections have grown over the years, Ransom said. It's no longer necessary for them to be concerned someone will check out many items with not much left for other people.
The library has multiple copies of popular material, including books and DVDs, Ransom said. For example, the library has multiple copies of books by 20 popular authors.
Another change will allow people to renew two DVDs, while the policy has been no DVD renewals are allowed, said Sarah Loch, young adult librarian. An exception to a renewal would be if someone else has the DVD on hold to check it out when it is returned.
Porter said she likes this change, because she's had to return DVDs in the past without watching them. Lovegood said she thinks her grandchildren will also like the change in the renewal policy.
There will also be some changes to fines, Ransom said. The fine for overdue DVDs is $1 per day. It has a $7 maximum fine, which will change to a $3 maximum fine.
Porter said she understands the need for late fees but thinks the $1 per day fee is high, because taxpayers already help support the library.
The fine for music CDs is $1 per day, Ransom said. That fine will change to 10 cents per day.
Ransom said the library will still get some revenue from fines, while the changes will make it less likely for people to get in trouble with fines as quickly.
NW News on 05/29/2015