Steve Heser has worked at Milwaukee County Federated Library System for nearly 14 years, most of those in a systems administrator capacity assisting libraries to meet their technological needs. His current professional interests involve SQL and data mining for libraries.

Unreturned Materials as Barriers to Access (PLA On-Demand Webinar)—GROUP RATE
If you will be viewing alone or with one other viewer, please purchase at the individual rate. If you plan on viewing this on-demand webinar with a group of 3 or more people, please purchase at the group rate. Group rate is for single library access, including all its branches/outlets, if an on-demand webinar will be viewed by multiple people—viewing on an individual basis and/or in groups. Please contact plawebinars@ala.org for special pricing if you wish to share access to an on-demand webinar across multiple libraries in a consortium.
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- Who Should Attend
- About the Instructors
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With public libraries increasingly eliminating fines as a means of reducing barriers to library access, Milwaukee Public Library and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Information Studies dared to ask the most basic question: why don’t people return their books?
In the fall of 2016, more than 10,000 people in the City of Milwaukee, WI had their fines forgiven and their library privileges restored. Within 90 days, 8% of those individuals found themselves in the same position, with fines and fees blocking access. Would fine elimination solve this problem, or were other factors preventing materials from timely return?
Learn how the research team developed the methodology, executed the study, and what the surprising survey data revealed to help the team better understand the precipitating behavior. This archived webinar was originally presented July 11, 2019.
Running time: 58 minutes
At the conclusion of this on-demand webinar, participants will be able to:
- Identify data points to study local trends for unreturned materials;
- Identify barriers to successful library use; and
- Understand use of data for policy decisions.
Please note: Your purchase at the ALA Store is only Step 1 of a 2-Step Registration process!
Upon purchase you will receive an access instructions PDF in the form of a digital download. The download link can be found on the final confirmation screen after you complete your purchase, and it may also be accessed from your Account Profile. This PDF contains a link to the webinar recording and a password you'll need to view it. You must download this PDF and follow the instructions in order to access the webinar recording.
Technical requirements: To playback an archived webinar you should have either the latest version of Flash running on your computer, or use a browser with native HTML5 support. Please use the most up-to-date version available of Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera, or Internet Explorer. A fast Internet connection and computer is recommended.
This on-demand webinar will be most helpful to library directors, managers, and administrators. Any library seeking to make changes to fines or lending policies could benefit from learning about the data points used in the study. All library staff seeking to identify and understand barriers to community use of library resources may also find the survey results helpful.
PLA does not award credit hours, or CEUs, for its on-demand webinars and cannot verify participation.
If you have questions or problems accessing a recording, send a message to plawebinars@ala.org or call 800-545-2433 ext. 5PLA (5752).