Starting Today, Chicago Libraries Won't Charge Late Fees For 2 Weeks

By Mae Rice in News on Feb 4, 2016 5:30PM

Library bookshelves (photo by Edward Blake on Flickr)

Starting Thursday and ending Feb. 18, Chicago Public Library patrons can return overdue materials and get their late fees waived.

It’s all part of a program called “Welcome Home,” according to the Tribune, which is meant to reunite the library with missing materials, and with patrons kept away by looming late fees.

Based on the 2012 window in which the library waived late fees, the program is a win-win: it makes money and brings in hilariously late books.

The Tribune reports on the last amnesty program:

During the last amnesty program, in 2012, the library reported receiving 101,301 overdue items, valued at approximately $2 million, and waived $641,820 worth of fines. The late materials ranged from items only a few weeks overdue to one book that had been due since 1934.

That last item was a limited edition of "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde, which had been overdue for 78 years.

The library caps late fees at 10 dollars per item, though if patrons lose checked out materials, they have to pay to replace them (and pay any accrued late fees).