Overdue Library books
Case reference FOI2023/01601
Published 20 October 2023
Request
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 please can I request information about:
How many library books are overdue at libraries within your council and how much money in fines are Herefordshire's libraries owed by people for not returning overdue books?
Can you detail (where possible): - Which book has been missing the longest? Inc. Title, author, date it was taken out.
How many books in your local authorities' libraries are missing in total?
The total figure of money owed in fines for the overdue books? - How many copies of books are missing/overdue? e.g. 40 copies of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire missing from Herefordshire's libraries.
Response
How many library books are overdue at libraries within your council and how much money in fines are Herefordshire's libraries owed by people for not returning overdue books?
A: There are currently 3,127 items on loan with an overdue due date ranging from one day to two years.
No money is owned in fines.
Can you detail (where possible):
- Which book has been missing the longest? Inc. Title, author, date it was taken out.
A: The book with the earliest due date is a copy of Julia Donaldson's "Superworm", which was due back 3 April 2021.
- How many books in your local authorities' libraries are missing in total?
A: Overdue items are not necessarily "missing". In most cases they are just on loan and still being used by the borrower, but for some reason the due date has not been amended. There can be a number of reasons for this. We will shortly be sending out email notifications to remind customers to renew any items they have on loan and encourage them to exchange their items and borrow more books.
If customers inform us that they have lost their library books and cannot return them, these are reported as lost and damaged.
Last year four items were reported lost and/or damaged. The total income paid was £21.
- The total figure of money owed in fines for the overdue books?
A: No money is owned in fines.
- How many copies of books are missing/overdue? e.g. 40 copies of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire missing from Herefordshire's libraries.
A: There is no way of telling how many copies of a book are overdue, other than individually checking every barcode. However, a random sampling of each item type identified one or at most two copies of an edition overdue. There was no specific title that had more overdrawn or missing copies compared to any others.
Documents
This is Herefordshire Council's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.
You can browse our other responses or make a new FOI request.