Braswell Memorial Library is a publicly funded institution whose mission is to offer free materials, services and programs to the members of our community. We receive 62 percent of our budget from Nash County, the city of Rocky Mount and Edgecombe County. The remaining 38 percent of our budget comes from private donations and private and government grants.

In order to be good stewards of the monies given to us, the library has for the last ten years used a collection agency called Unique Management Services to recover long overdue books and audiovisual materials. Recovering these items means not spending limited budget money on purchasing replacements. To date we have recovered items and the associated fines in an amount that more than pays for the collection costs.

Beginning the week of April 14, the library's collection agency also will collect overdue fines for us. The idea is the same – folks who owe a debt to the library – either in unreturned items or accrued fines – will be asked to pay up. Library card holders who have a balance of $25 or more will be contacted by Unique Management Services with a reminder that they owe money. If, after several letters and telephone calls, the account is not cleared, the account holder will be reported to national credit reporting agencies.

The good news for everyone is that before this process is put into place, the library will sponsor a "Half Off Your Fines" week. During the week of April 7 through April 12, anyone who comes into the library and pays off their fines in full will have half the fine total on their account waived.

Unique Management Services specializes in working with libraries. Their "gentle nudge" approach recovers materials and fines from patrons while preserving the patrons' goodwill toward the library. The library has never received a complaint about their collection process or any of their staff. The company also guarantees budget neutrality – they will never charge more than the amount of money they help recover, thus insuring no negative impact on our budget.

The library knows that your tax dollars and private donations keep us in operation – and we take every opportunity to stretch our budget as far as it will go to provide the top-quality services, materials, and programs that our community deserves. The fines and fees we charge and take in help us stretch our budget a bit more to provide even better services.

Come see us soon – and stop by the Check Out desk to ask if you owe any fines! Every cent you pay goes to maintain and improve library services to our community.