The Great Read Away: Library Fine Forgiveness Program for Youth

About the Program

Category: Libraries (Best in Category)

Year: 2019

LA County Library’s The Great Read Away is an amnesty program that allows young cardholders ages 21 and under to reduce fines that have accrued on their accounts by spending time reading in the library. For every hour spent reading, $5 in fines is removed from the customer’s account. The program waives nearly all fee types, including overdue fees, lost and damaged material replacement fees, and library card replacement fees. Participants can read books or eBooks, graphic novels, comic books, magazines, newspapers, digital databases, or articles. A parent or caregiver can also read to a child and count this time toward fine removal. While removing economic barriers, The Great Read Away successfully encourages reading and increases access to information, which helps better the lives of youth, improving their employability and decreasing their chances of incarceration. Furthering the goal of getting youth from lower socio-economic communities back in the library. The program launched in June 2017 and results look promising so far: as of Dec 2018, 3.3 million reading minutes had been logged over 57,000 reading sessions, nearly 15,000 accounts had been unblocked, and 20,000 cleared of all fines.