Library Computers Cull Fines

Harvard library computers are now tabulating overdue fines--and faster than ever before.

The University's new computerized fine system, installed this year, automatically charges students one cent per minute for overdue reserve books, ten cents more per hour than in past years.

Some students complained yesterday that the new system, due to its to-the-minute precision, fines them unfairly for time their books are waiting in book-drops.

"It does seem like there are more fines," said Aran R. Shetterly '93. "It certainly makes me watch the time more closely."

He said that with the new system, he has become "more aware of the time passing" and that he "has been billed substantially this year."

Lowell House tutor Peter A. Jourdin said that students in the house had commented on the lack of publicity concerning the shift to computerized billing. Jourdin added that his own bills had been "more substantial and frequent" since the change.

Walter D. Stine, a systems librarian at Lamont Library, said that since going on-line, the revenue from overdue books at Lamont had accumulated "in a different pattern" than in past years.

"It is a little early to compare," Stine said, adding that "to date there has been no increase in overall fines." Widener Library Financial Services, which oversees the revenues, would not provide figures on book fine revenue revenue.

Barbara A. Mitchell, head of the libraries' access services division, also declined to provide such figures.

Allen Bourque, librarian for bibliographic control at Cabot Science Library--home of one of the busiest reserve libraries--said that "we have had complaints from time to time over fines accumulating [while books are in] the book drop."

But book checkers at Cabot "try to discharge things as soon as possible," Bourque said.