It would be easy to accuse Hennepin County and Minneapolis officials of ignoring the Supremes’ advice that "You can’t hurry love" when they rushed to merge their library systems last year. But why bother pointing fingers over the merger’s unanticipated $3.5 million overrun announced last week, when getting a grip on the problem could be as easy as calling in all outstanding overdue fines and replacement fees? With one simple step, the Hennepin County Library’s sudden money problem — a "troubling," "disappointing" but "not surprising" result of "profound mismanagement," to quote county commissioners — would be solved.

Taken together, in the pre-merger year of 2007, the two library systems’ 650,000 patrons coughed up more than $1.5 million in overdue fines and replacement fees.  For the merged entity, Hennepin County Library, a similar rate of return has already been accounted for in this year’s budget. But how about the fines patrons have yet to pay? Could those cover the new merger debt?

Sharon Charles, director of the Hennepin County Library’s resource services division, sounds two notes of caution. First: "It is important to understand the function of overdue fines within the mission of the public library. Fines on books and AV materials which are not returned by the due date are assessed a daily overdue fine only to encourage prompt return of materials so that the material can be used by others." And second: "How much the registered borrowers owe the library changes minute by minute as books become overdue and borrowers pay their fines."

 

Charles probably would add a third caveat: Don’t take hopped-up, back-of-a-napkin math to the bank. But a liberal take on Charles’ rough method for estimating current patron debt ("about half of the library card accounts do have an outstanding balance, most under $15") results in a number — $4,875,000 — that comes temptingly close to covering the $1.5 million in fines the library already expects to take in this year as well as the $3.5 million shortfall just announced. 

 

How to compel patrons to pay up? Take advantage of the new ownership structure. After all, only a few blocks away the library’s overseers, the Hennepin County commissioners, have a jail at their disposal.