MARIBYRNONG City Council has hired a specialist consultancy to retrieve long-overdue library books.
More than 2000 long overdue items are considered lost each year from the Maribyrnong, Footscray, West Footscray and Yarraville Libraries, with the majority of these the most popular titles.
Mayor Sarah Carter said loss of library resources disadvantaged other members, prevented libraries from offering their full catalogue to members and diverted valuable library funds from purchasing new titles to replace ones that had been lost.
The council has appointed Unique Management Services to retrieve items that are considered lost. People holding overdue books will be fined $15 plus any outstanding fines already incurred on the items.
Items are considered lost once members have been contacted numerous times via phone, email and letter by the Maribyrnong Library Service over a period of 35 days and the item has still not been returned.
Unique Management Services currently work with more than 1000 libraries in Australia, the UK, US and Canada.
More than 800,000 items are borrowed each year from the Maribyrnong, Footscray, West Footscray and Yarraville libraries by approximately 28,000 current registered members.
