Frank Lancellotti was a college student on the day of Jan. 12, 1955 when he walked into a Jersey City Public Library branch and borrowed the“New Spanish-English and English-Spanish Dictionary” by Arthur Angeli, published in 1911.
However, it wasn’t until last month that he found the book in a box in his Brick Township home.
The fine for the 54-year-old book would theoretically be $1,750, but not this month.
Lancellotti e-mailed the library’s webmaster to let them know that he recovered the book and wanted to return it, after finding out that the library planned to institute a fine-free period from Dec. 7 to 19, offering amnesty for late materials.
The library made arrangements with Lancellotti, and he shipped the book, along with a $100 check, by overnight mail to the library’s Main Branch.
The $1,750 in fines that he would owe is now but a distant memory.
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Amnesty rules
For two weeks, starting this past Monday, Dec. 7 and running through Saturday, Dec. 19, all fees and fines will be forgiven when people bring overdue materials back to the library.
“We recognize the money squeeze everyone is feeling these days, so we’ve created this two-week amnesty period for our loyal patrons to get some relief,” said Assistant Library Director Sonia Araujo, who is coordinating this effort.
Valid Jersey City library card users can take their library materials to all departments at the Main Branch Library on Jersey Avenue or any of the 11 branches, as well as the Bookmobile.
After those two amnesty weeks, the following fines and fees for materials and services will be in effect beginning Monday, Jan. 4, 2010:
• Overdue book fees (after 30 days out) change from $0.10/day to $0.20/day
• Videos rental fees from $1.50/3 days to $2.00/3days, while late fees stay at $1/day.
• Educational videos are still free of charge.
• Photo copies cost from $0.10 to $0.20 per copy.
Note that someone who lost a material will still have to pay what the material cost.
Turning a new page
In an interview last week, Araujo said the idea for the amnesty came about when the library made the decision recently to raise fees as a means of making up for the shortfall in the library’s budget, after they were hit with a $500,000 cut in their funding from the city.
“We were going to raise fees, but before we did that, we wanted people to make amends and wipe the slate clean by returning library materials,” Araujo said.
According to Araujo, there are 175,000 library card holders whose borrowing is monitored by computer. Normally, if they owe $10 or more, then they cannot use their library card until fines are paid off.
For more on the amnesty, visit the library’s website: www.jclibrary.org or call Sonia Araujo at (201) 547-4549.
Ricardo Kaulessar can be reached at rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com.