Charging for damaged books: a Support Services perspective
Introduction:
Pretty much the only customer interaction Support Services gets is dealing with angry and defensive customers. After all the work we put in to delivering a quality product, this often makes us feel very sad.
Current procedure:
The current procedure is that items returned and put to damaged are sent up to Megan who analyses the books for damage and suggests a damage fee based on the age of the books.
They are then sent to me for approval where I assess whether the damage fee is warranted. I check dates to get an idea if an item may have deteriorated further since return (ie in cases of mould)
Once I have approved damaged analysis, Megan prints out the damaged letters, enters the finance on each borrowers record, files the letters and keeps the books in a crate for instances where the borrower rings up to challenge. Megan has measured the time it took her to deal with problem items over the week and for 8 books it ended up taking over an hour and a half of her time.
If a customer rings up and complains about the fee, I grab a copy of the letter sent out and go and find the item in question. I then bring up their record to see if they often receive fines or have had previous disputes with the library. This helps in my judgement of whether the fine is warranted. This is also disruptive to my day and is a very frustrating experience because borrowers making the effort to ring up have pretty much already made up their minds that the library is useless, they are not paying the fines, the book was like it when they borrowed it etc.
Stats:
o I would estimate at least a third of the customers that I send letters to I hear back from.
o Average 2 hours per week dealing with all aspects of the issues between at least 2 people.
o We have 4 crates up here in the compactus divided into half yearly sections. There is still half a crate of items from Jan-Jun 08 that are waiting to either be paid or hear back from the customer. Megan recently cleaned out the Jul-Dec 07 crate and deleted the items. The fines are still on those borrowers cards, after this amount of time we will probably never hear from them again.
Issues:
At the end of the day, we have to give them the benefit of the doubt. Whatever the customer tells me to get out of the fine, no matter how much I think they are telling fibs, I have no way to prove it. All I have is a damaged item sent to me- usually I don't know the circumstances of its return or even its state at the time of return.
Mould: items that are returned damp or with a little bit of mould seem to be easily missed- see dvd cover. What has a spot of mould on it (which is not noticed) at time of borrowing could grow enormously over borrowing period and even more still by the time it reaches my desk.
Staff members are not consistent in identifying damage. Many customers claim they often find damaged items on the shelves and I believe them because I have found them myself. Some may be damaged in the library- eg children's books. Some may just be missed coming through.
Comments:
Even our current procedure seems a little off. We charge people based on the age of the book and if the book is old and unpopular we may not even bother, especially if they question it. The charge is actually a fine, not a replacement fee. If we are going to punish our customers, shouldn't we do it fairly and based upon the act of damaging, rather than what kind of books they borrow?
I can understand why people get upset- for just about every customer who says they won't be using the library again after paying the fee, I believe we really have falsely accused them.
Suggestions:
Regardless of the decision, a new procedure needs to be written. It will include that no item can be charged for if it was pulled from the shelf or from a trolley or found in the library. Only those pulled from the returns chute.
If we do continue charging, could it be a flat rate damage fee?
I realise that it is often difficult to check every item upon return esp in high volume branches. But perhaps introducing a culture of having a brief glance at the books before loaning them out could also save a lot of hassle. I did this on Saturday and saved two separate customers the danger of being blamed for damage that was already there. The items had been returned that day and the day before.
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6 comments:
I would be quite happy to not charge for damaged books as the usual procedure, but have something in place so that we have the option of charging in the rare cases where the damage is deliberate and on going eg, our Vogue mags at Erina.
cheers
Denise
I would be much happier with a damage fee it would save much grief
generally
Julie
I have never pulled a book off the shelf and the sent it to Admin for a letter for the last borrower. The last borrower may not have caused the damage. The only books that have been sent in have been in the shute badly damaged eg water or torn.
Scribbles can sometimes be missed as you cannot physically go through every page in every book.
I suppose the majority of damaged books become that way because of an unfortunate accident. It seems harsh to punish a young mother because their toddler has got loose with a pen or and older person because they spilt coffee on a book or a school child because they left the drink lid off their drink in their bag.
Ultimately its up to the management of the library to decide if fees should be imposed or not. It needs to be consistent so should come from a central place.
Everyone has a story to tell behind the damage and I tend to believe most people. There are some who are dishonest but I would think they would be in the minority. Its a complex issue.
Do we need this revenue to purchase more books or is it so small in the scheme of things that it is insignificant?
Yes it would be wonderful not to charge.
A fairer system is wanted by staff and customers. Customers need to accept responsibility if they damage items. A new procedure that handles damaged items immediately at a branch level could be a practical solution, particularly a flat rate charge - similar to processing fee - possibly $10 OR $15. It is important that customers are not permitted to retain damaged books. Bronwyn
Just briefly in response to the dilemma of damaaged books.
At some libraries a set fee is taken for damaged items and at some academic libraries this amounted to 100.00 per book which included a 35.00 processing fee. However, in public libraries often the practice is to accept replacement books purchased by the customer particularly in the case of accidental damage which has been admitted to eg. caught in a rainstorm with books in the bicycle basket.
If a book is going out in poor condition then a note should be put on the customers record to advise this to cover them or it should be disposed of on the spot and a replacement ordered.
In my view, the assessment of whether a book has been damaged accidentally or wilfully should be made at the branch level where generally the staff know the customers as well take into account their borrowing history.
It seems it is taking an extraordinary amount of time is being spent on this by Support Services and also, sometimes with the effect of maybe losing some customers who believe that the damage was already there previously or it was accidental.
I think that the assessment of whether the damage was accidental or deliberate should be made at branch level with supporting evidence if possible from the customer. Maybe a form for customers to write their explanation on before it is passed on would help if they have admitted to it. In these cases, I think a set fee or acceptance of a replacement copy is a good idea to save support services team all this processing time. Also, I think that discretion needs to available to branch librarians if something clearly is accidental eg the dog chewed it.
Its Denise S again, I also have never pulled a book off the shelf and organised for a letter to be sent to the last borrower. I just think we miss too much to be consistant. Yesterday i issued a reservation to a customer which looked perfectly fine, & which must have been handled by at least 2 other staff before me. It was only when the woman opened the front cover to look at the title page at the counter that i saw all the mould and water damage. She would have been charged on return, and we wouldn't have believed her if she said it was like that. I really think we can only charge when we know for sure.
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