Since July 1, Invercargill City Council library users no longer have to pay overdue library fees and all historical fines have been wiped.
Council libraries manager Marianne Foster said at the time there was a concern that items would not be returned on time — but the trend has been the opposite.
The number of items on time returned increased by 8% for the period July to September 2022, when 106,906 items were returned, compared to 98,877 returned in the corresponding period the previous year, she said.
"It follows the research carried out overseas that showed the fines were a barrier to people using the library rather than an incentive to return items."
She said previous reports stated the financial impact for the library was about $40,000 with this initiative, but on the other hand there has been a 10% increase in membership since the fines were removed.
Libraries customer experience team leader Donald Cunningham said the removal of fees not only benefited customers, but also staff.
It is kind of a win-win situation, he said.
"We noticed a lot of people who had let their accounts slip because of money coming back and staff are not having to have those awkward kind of conversations with members over fines ...
"The feedback has been amazing so I think it has been successful."
