East Providence Library leaves late charges behind in the New Year

EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE)- The East Providence Library will no longer be charging late fines on overdue library material effective January 7, according to a joint announcement from The City of East Providence and Library Board of Trustees.

After the library removed late fines for children and young adult material, they noticed that the change did not affect the material being returned in a timely manner. They determined that eliminating the fines gives equal access to everyone in the community to their materials.

“I am so proud that East Providence is joining over 37 other communities in Rhode Island and thousands of municipalities throughout the nation to remove this barrier to library usage,” East Providence Mayor Bob DaSilva said. “Often it is the people who need the library most who stay away because of fines.

“Our library’s mission to encourage a love of reading and learning in everyone,” Library Director Joyce May said. “There’s nothing we love more than to see people borrowing our materials and we strive to see even more of it in 2022.”

The library encourages the community to return their materials on time, lost or damages material will still receive a replacement cost.