In Australia's first national year of reading, another reason why library fines are not so fine.

• Author: Bundy, Alan
• Position: Editorial - Column

In this column in the December 2005 issue of Aplis pages 129-130, under Time to free public libraries, was a commentary on the charges supposedly free public libraries impose on their users, and the barriers to users and equitable access those charges too easily become. As I stated then

For what they provide to communities and individuals, public libraries can never be overused ... They can, however, be underused and made difficult to use by barriers such as difficult and unsignposted locations, poor parking, buildings, access, hours, resources and petty charging practices.

In reviewing the issue of fines for overdue items, it was noted that

* there is no research evidence that fining is more effective than any...