Amnesty planned for East Lancashire library books (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Amnesty planned for East Lancashire library books

11:00am Saturday 1st January 2011 in News By Vanessa Cornall , Reporter

Mike Calvert

AN amnesty is to be launched to recover thousands of books not returned to libraries across East Lancashire.

The unprecedented move comes in a bid to save cash for the library service, which faces severe cuts after the county council announced it must reduce its budget by around £128 million over the next two years.

The amnesty will only happen in East Lancs because the area has the worst record in the county for missing books.

Mike Calvert, cabinet member responsible for the county’s libraries, said: “Whichever way you look at it, not returning books to libraries is theft.

“Inevitably books and items lent by the library service, including CDs and DVDs, go missing.

"Last year we had quite a spate of thefts of this kind across East Lancashire.

“We are hoping that the amnesty will really encourage people to return books.”

In 2010 alone 5,815 books were stolen from libraries in Hyndburn, Pendle, Rossendale, Ribble Valley and Burnley.

More than 2,500 of those books originated from libraries in Accrington, Haslingden, Burnley and Clitheroe.

Library bosses said many thousands more were outstanding from previous years.

Each book that goes missing costs the Library Service about £10, making an amnesty a cost-effective solution bosses said.

Lancashire county library manager Julie Bell said: “Amnesties are a very fruitful way of getting books back which is why we are planning one for New Year.”

All books are issued for three weeks and accrue charges of 11 pence per day after the due date, up to a maximum of £6 per book.

The county council has a budget of £20million for its library services while Blackburn and Darwen Council which runs five libraries has a budget of £2,067,600.

“People neglect to return books for many reasons including forgetting them, dying before being able to return them, moving away and because they are too embarrassed about the cost of fines when they have had the books for a long time.

“An amnesty will hopefully see a large number of books returned that can either be reissued or sold on to make money for the library in question.”