Local Charities Benefit From Overdue Books

It seems that overdue books can be a good thing. 

Last month the county collected donations for charities while forgiving fines for overdue library materials. During Fine Forgiveness Week, the Manatee County Public Library System was able to reinstate 913 patrons to regular membership while collecting thousands of charitable donations.

During the one-time promotional week, anyone with overdue fines or fines as the result of lost and damaged materials was given the opportunity to bring in charitable donations of food, toiletries or pet items to clear the fines. Returning library patrons donated personal toiletries, laundry soap, blankets, towels, diapers, baby clothes, toys and food for animals and people.

Donations included 1,760 items for the One Stop Resource Center for homeless individuals and families and 1,857 items for HOPE Family Services. In addition, the library collected  255 items for Manatee County Animal Services.

Ava Ehde, Manatee County Library Services Manager, described the event as "wildly successful.

“Not only were we able to bring in literally tons of donations for extremely worthy causes, we were able to reaffirm a customer friendly relationship between the staff and patrons and renew trust among government and the citizens for the use of a public facility," she said. "We also received library-owned materials back to the library for recirculation that we may otherwise never have received.”

The library was able to clear 183 debt collection records, reshelf 331 books and even managed to collect $2,835 in fines, even though patrons didn't have to pay.

The Manatee County Public Library System has six locations, including the Central Library and five branch libraries. More than one million patrons used nearly 2.5 million items last year. In addition, the library started making e-books (for the Kindle, Nook and other e-readers), available to patrons last year.

For more information on Manatee County Library System, visit www.mymanatee.org/library or call (941) 748-5555.