Boole Library Owed Over €74,000 in Fines

27,000 students, past and present, have unpaid fines.

UCC’s Boole Library is currently owed €74,363.75 in unpaid late-return fines, with over two-thirds of the sum made up of penalties attached to the accounts of current and former undergraduate students.Approximately 27,000 students are listed within the library system as having unpaid debts, meaning the average student owes the library just under €3 in fines. While outstanding fines attached to undergraduate accounts total €49,741.06, postgraduate students owe the college slightly more on average, as the 6,196 currently open accounts attached to postgraduate students combined for a total of €24,622.69 in fines.The figures reflect an issue which is impacting upon college libraries across the country, after an investigation by the Irish Independent found that the UCD, NUI Maynooth (NUIM) and Trinity College libraries were owed a collective €800,000.The same investigation found the unpaid fines to be a much larger issue at UCD, Ireland’s largest university, where a total of 21,380 people owe the library a combined €428,494. However, UCC’s figure ranks as worse than that of Trinity and NUI Galway, which are owed €67,920.91 and €24,633 respectively.

"An investigation by the Irish Independent found that the UCD, NUI Maynooth (NUIM) and Trinity College libraries were owed a collective €800,000."

Colette McKenna, UCC’s Director of Library Services, emphasised that while the library’s purpose was not to take money from students, fines were necessary as “the student body want the books that aren’t coming back.”McKenna added that while the library’s priority was ensuring that all unreturned books would be recovered, the outstanding debt, if recouped, could be used to further improve facilities within the library.