Regardless of a person's socioeconomic standing, everyone is entitled to use their local library. Charging patrons for an item that was accidentally damaged while checked out to them deters them from using the library. This can be for many reasons, whether it be that they are unable to afford it or for the shame they feel for damaging an item. This feels contradictory to what we believe a library should be advocating for within our community. One way that we felt that we could make a difference would be to enact an accident forgiveness policy. This is a multistep process that made us reassess how and why we sent patrons to collections, added a processing fee, and ultimately, how we kept patrons from using the library.
