By Priya Nand
Checkouts at Harbor City Public Library rose 18% in the six months after it stopped charging overdue fines, and the share of items returned on time barely moved, according to figures presented to the library’s board of trustees Thursday.
From March through August, the library’s nine branches checked out 1.39 million books, movies and other items, up from 1.18 million in the same months of 2025. The largest increase was at the Eastside branch on Mill Road, where checkouts rose 31%.
The board voted in January to end overdue fines on March 1, and the City Council covered the lost revenue in the budget it passed in February, on a 7–2 vote. Fines brought in $168,000 in the 2025 fiscal year, less than 1% of the library’s $24 million budget.
“For years we spent staff time collecting small amounts of money from the people least able to pay it,” said Paul Lindqvist, the library’s director. “We were also keeping those people out of the building. These numbers say they’ve come back.”
When fines ended, the library cleared the balances on 23,600 cards that had been blocked because their holders owed $10 or more. Of those cardholders, 7,100 have borrowed something since, the figures show.
Returns held steady
Opponents of the change had argued that without fines, fewer people would bring items back. The library’s figures show that 94% of items were returned within 30 days of their due date from March through August, compared with 95% in the same period last year.
The library still charges for lost items. Anything more than 45 days overdue is billed at its replacement cost, and the card is blocked until the item is returned or paid for. If the item comes back, the charge is removed.
Council Member Ray Castellano, who voted against covering the lost fine revenue in February, said Friday that he was encouraged but wanted a full year of data. “Six months is a good start,” he said. “I’d like to see the return rate hold for a whole year before anybody calls this settled.”
Back at the counter
Marisol Duarte, who manages the Eastside branch, said the change showed up at the circulation desk within weeks. Parents who had stopped bringing children in because of fines on family cards started coming back in the spring, she said, and the branch’s Saturday story time now regularly fills all 40 of its seats.
Janelle Fortune, an Eastside resident with three children, said her family’s cards had been blocked over $46 in fines. “It wasn’t that I couldn’t find $46,” she said. “It was that every time we went in, we owed more, and I was embarrassed. So we stopped going.” Her children now check out about a dozen books a week, she said.
Lindqvist said the library will present a full year of figures to the board in March. He said the library also plans to use some of the staff time once spent collecting fines to open the Eastside branch on Sunday afternoons starting in January.