by Veronica L. McClendon
Staff Writer
Even with its new facility, late and damaged books are still an issue for the Wilson Library.
The Wilson Library has two major fees for late and damaged books. Users who do not turn in the books by the due date, are sent a notice to their home or mailbox. If the book is not returned after the six day grace period, 25 cents per item is charged daily from the initial due date.
No more than $10 will be charged for late books, but once a notice is sent out to the borrower once they have accumulated a fine of this amount, a hold will also be put on the borrowers student account until the fees are paid. Upon return of the book, there will be a $25 processing fee plus the $10 late fee charged.
As for damaged books, the last user is charged for the damages. If the damaged book can not be repaired, the borrower is charged the cost to replace the book.
The average cost of a book in the library is $50. With late charges and processing fees included, the cost of one lost damaged book could amount to $85 total.
“I have done invoices for students who have got charged up to $2,000,”said Dr. Marlin Heckman, head librarian. “All of a sudden they began finding books under desks, on shelves, in cars and every where else.”
Dr. Heckman said, “the purpose of the library is to share materials with everyone and the reason for fines is to get the material returned on time so that others can use them.”
Under a new policy, faculty are now fined for late books. Faculty used to be able to check out books for a semester with one renewal and have 60 days with one renewal.
Part-time faculty and graduate students have 35 days to check out books with one renewal. Undergraduate students have 28 days to have checked out books with one renewal.
Any day the library is open it is considered a potential due date. A calendar has been entered into the computers which lists the days when the library is closed. The new computer system has helped the library run more efficiently.
University of La Verne students are allowed to check out books from any college participating in the Inland Empire Academic Library Cooperative (IEALC) program. An IEALC card is given to La Verne students that allow them to check out no more than three books from another college campus library.
“There are about 19 participating libraries,” said Dr. Heckman. He describes the participating colleges as “Azusa, west to the desert, east except the Claremont Colleges.”
Cal Poly Pomona, Cal State Fullerton, Azusa Pacific University and the surrounding community colleges are among the few libraries participating.
Everyone is welcome to use the sources in the library, but they are not allowed to check books out. Non-ULV students can buy access to the library for $50 a year. This card is called the Wilson Library Associates card.
Copy machines, computers, and reference books are among the few useful tools the Wilson Library has to offer its users.
There are five copy machines in the Wilson library, and a new addition is the color copier. The color copies cost 60 cents per copy.
Copies are less expensive at the Wilson Library in comparison to other college libraries, said Dr. Heckman.
“It makes excellent copies,” he continued.
The video cameras and the alarm has not seemed to prevent theft. Dr. Heckman hoped that it would have but “books keep popping up missing.”
Students with outrageous fines tend to hide books throughout the library.
There are still many books that are missing from the shelves and have yet to be put in the LEOPAC computers status as missing.
The books seem to turn up missing in cycles and at the present time death penalty and abortion books seem to be missing.
“These books are found missing quite often,” said Dr. Heckman.
“We don’t want to be the police,” said Dr. Heckman. People can help the librarians out by reporting books when they find pages missing out of them so they can be replaced. Dr. Heckman said, “people are still ripping pages out of the journals.”
Dr. Heckman believes that the library has an adequate amount of information for the undergraduates.
“I think that it is a mistake for people to automatically assume that our library is too small (not enough sources),” said Dr. Heckman.
The librarians help students find material that they are looking for in the Wilson library first, and then they offer to send them to other college libraries.
“Don’t be afraid to ask for help because there are things we can do to help,” said Dr. Heckman.
