Collection Agencies Join Hunt for Overdue Books : 14 Libraries Flex a Little Muscle

If the “repo man” can repossess cars, washing machines or dinettes from delinquent bill payers, then why not overdue books from tardy library patrons?

The librarians at 14 Los Angeles County libraries in the east San Gabriel Valley are discovering that the art of not-so gentle persuasion used by collection agencies can be applied to the nagging problem of overdue books.

However, the goal is not to harass patrons, said Wanda Weldon, a consultant running the pilot program. “It’s making people do what they know in their hearts they should do--return the books.”

Cautiously, librarians tell stories to support their belief that the project is working.

After being forwarded a notice from the library’s collection agency, one former San Gabriel Valley resident who had five overdue books shipped them back from his new home--in Germany.

When another man received the collection agency’s demand that he return books to the West Covina library, he found out that his estranged girlfriend in San Francisco had the books. But she wouldn’t mail them to him. If he wanted them, she said, he’d have to come and get them. So he drove to San Francisco and brought the books back.

In Baldwin Park, the collection agency’s letter asking for one book prompted a patron to return another book the library didn’t even know was missing. That book, on compulsive eating, was 12 years overdue.

Another woman insisted that she didn’t have the expensive art books charged to her library card. She had already returned them, she told the West Covina librarian who called her home. Then the collection agency sent her a letter telling her to bring the books back. Five days later, the art books appeared in the book drop.

County library officials first began considering the use of a collection agency to help retrieve books 18 months ago, said Michael Garofalo, regional administrator for the east San Gabriel area. He said there has been a long-standing need to solve the problem of books known as the “far overdue.”

Garofalo said one-third to one-half of the library system’s annual $900,000 book budget for his region goes to replace long-overdue books. Mary Miller, principal librarian in West Covina, adds that it usually takes a year from the time it is determined that a book should be replaced to the time it is actually put on the shelf.

Other libraries in California and throughout the country have used collection agencies in recent years, Garofalo said. “We’re latecomers, but we’re a very large organization, and we wanted to see how others have done.”

Garofalo is still assessing the results of the project, which started last spring and will run through this summer. He said library officials will review the project to determine whether it could be successful throughout the Los Angeles County system, which has 91 branches.

Already, he said, the results look good for the 14 branches in the east San Gabriel region, from Claremont to Duarte. In October, November and December, books and materials valued at $36,000 were returned. Another $9,100 in fines and fees was collected.

The $45,100 total represents books and fines that in the past the libraries would have considered forever lost, Garofalo said.

But in judging the project’s success, he said, he has to consider the $50,000 spent to fund it for a year and the library staff time devoted to making it work.

Deterrent Effect

Librarians report that just the idea of a collection agency being involved seems to have a deterrent effect, Garofalo said. “It’s getting books back on the shelf that were sitting in people’s houses.”

The first public notices went out in August. Patrons were warned that beginning in September, overdue notices would be turned over to a collection agency if books weren’t returned and fines weren’t paid within 21 days after the due date.

“Not all borrowers return library books on time,” the notice said, “and some never return library materials at all. This deprives all borrowers of needed materials.”

Routinely, in the Los Angeles County system, a patron can check out a book for two weeks and renew it for two more. Overdue fines accrue at 15 cents a day for adults and 5 cents for children. In the past, librarians would call a person who had more than one overdue book and had not responded to overdue notices.

There have been grace periods when the fines were forgiven if a book was returned. But library officials say large numbers of books still never came back.

Bill Included

Now the patron receives a written notice on the 21st day a book is overdue. It says the book must be returned and the fines paid or the matter will be sent to a collection agency. Four weeks later, the patron receives the collection agency letter, which includes a bill for the fine, the cost of the book and the agency’s own fee.

If the first letter doesn’t work, more letters follow. Library officials will not say exactly how the letters are worded or what enticements or punishments are mentioned. They will say, though, that no personal contact is made.

“They are progressively stern letters . . . of increasing firmness,” Garofalo said.

“It’s not really a question of harsh language being used,” said Anne Bradley, a library spokeswoman. “It’s a question of someone getting a letter from a collection agency. That bears a certain weight in our society. It somehow strikes the fear of God into people.”

Weldon devised the particular program the library is using. Her firm, Weldon and Associates of Corona del Mar, consults with 200 libraries in California, Illinois and Mississippi. She, in turn, contracts with Advanced Collection Systems of Los Angeles to send the letters.

Credit Ratings

If people do not respond, it could hurt their credit rating, Weldon said, and attorneys may become involved in contacting those who don’t return the books. Garofalo noted that it is a misdemeanor to fail to return overdue library books.

“Librarians are nice people,” says Miller of the West Covina library. “We don’t like to take this hard attitude, but when you see so much of this material walking out the door and not coming back, something had to be done.”

These days, she said, many books cost $40 to $60.

On a recent day, Miller sorted through more than two dozen books that had been returned as a result of collection agency notices. All had been overdue for months, some for more than a year.

There were books on playwright Eugene O’Neill. Literary criticism, she said, seems to be a favorite for the far-overdue crowd.

Favorite Books

There was the Q-R volume of a somewhat outdated World Book Encyclopedia. Volume C of World Book, she said, often comes back months late.

Patrons invariably fail to return the books used to prepare for civil service tests, postal employees’ exams and the high school equivalency test, Miller said. Car-repair manuals and books on euthanasia, childbirth and pregnancy frequently don’t come back. Fiction readers, she said, seem more trustworthy.

The long-overdue readers, Miller concluded, “probably are the same ones who owe department stores, and they owe here and owe there.”

Although library officials say one man in Baldwin Park has threatened to sue over receiving a collection agency notice, Miller said: “Most people, when they bring the books back in, are quite sheepish.”

Once a patron has returned the overdue books and paid the fines, she said, forgiveness is possible and the slate is clean.

“At least, the sheriff doesn’t pound on their door in the middle of the night and take them to court,” Miller said, then paused before adding: “Not yet.”