Library Fines and Borrowing Policies UX Study

In March 2017, the UX Team investigated users’ perceptions and behaviours associated with library borrowing and fine policies.

Research Questions

• What do users’ know and think about the library’s borrowing and fine policies?
• How do users behave with respect to the library’s borrowing and fine policies?

Methods

• We conducted interviews with 8 users
• We then conducted 7 guerrilla interviews with users who were in the process of checking out books at the self-checkout machines

What did we Learn?

• Most users were not aware of the library ’s fines and borrowing policies
• Users who were aware that money from library fines supported worthwhile causes had a more positive attitude towards fines
• Most users expressed concern that if fines were eliminated there would be little incentive to return books
• The threat of a fine does not factor strongly into users decisions to return a book. The primary reasons users do not return a book is forgetfulness.

Our Recommendations

• Explore the possibility of eliminating fines
• Communicate to users about what the library does with money collected from fines
• Improve email communications about due and overdue books
• Improve the timing of email notifications
• Explore text message notifications
• Improve communications about borrowing policies