Online Payment for Fines and Fees

About the Program

Category: Libraries (Best in Category)

Year: 2017

Miami-Dade County Public Library System (MDPLS) is the 6th largest Public Library system in the United States. More than 2,400,000 residents of the Miami-Dade County Library District enjoy access to a collection of nearly 4,000,000 items, 230,000 downloadable or streaming audio and eBooks, 7,000,000 downloadable songs and music videos, and nearly 250 downloadable digital magazines in a wide variety of formats and languages. MDPLS also provides a state-of-the-art computer system with public computer workstations, as well as high speed laptops, and tablets, with full Wi-Fi Internet access for public use. The Library System operates a Main Library, five regional branches, 45 neighborhood branches, two YOUmedia Miami locations, two YOUmake Miami locations, two bookmobiles, and the Technobus computer learning vehicle. The MDPLS staff assigned to branches were spending their time collecting unpaid fines and fees from patrons accounts in order to access services offered by MDPLS. Payments options at the library branches were limited to cash, checks and money orders; the patrons did not have other options to pay their fines and fees; even when they were trying to access the on-line collections or other digital options. The payment system needed to be revised and made more user friendly; also the MDPLS staff needed to direct their activities to fulfill library related duties. The existing fine and fees payment system left many patrons frustrated and created a lot of unnecessary lines at service points. In 2014 the MDPLS and the Information Technology Department (ITD) made an assessment of the needs and options to serve the patrons better. As part of the review it was noted that offering online payment from the comfort of their own computers or digital devices could be a greater benefit for patrons and MDPLS staff. The current online service was implemented in 2015. The credit card online payment is a web-based tool that allows patron payments to be processed securely. All MDPLS credit card transactions are processed via the County’s Secure Online Payment Gateway. The online system allows all patrons to pay fines and fees to continue their access to all MDPLS services without visiting Library branches. Local Library branches do not accept credit card payments, patrons who need to made payments via credit card are directed to the library branch PC’s terminals to process their transactions. The new process has been a success as patrons and library staff have expressed their satisfaction with the new payment process. MDPLS continues to receive cash, money orders and personal check payments at the branch libraries. During fiscal year 2015-16 the online revenue collected was $125,609; the online payment transactions processed were 10,889 reducing the total cash transactions by 20%. For the current fiscal year 2016-17, as of February 2017, the total online revenue collected is $54,941; the total number of online transactions are 4,817 reducing the total cash transactions by 30%.