Public Library grants amnesty in December

By Melissa Bryant
Reporter-SKNVibes.com

~~Adz:Left~~ BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – PERSONS in possession of overdue books no longer have to guiltily avoid the Charles A. Halbert Public Library, as the institution has declared December to be its Amnesty Month.

Through the amnesty process overdue books in any condition can be returned to the library free of charge and without any subsequent penalties to users.

Amnesty Month Coordinator Carmen Blanchard noted that typically, in December, the number of donations to the library increases.

“Persons find lots of books when they are cleaning or renovating and many times, because that book is overdue, they may be unwilling to return it to the library.

“Amnesty is a good way to compel the return of books. There are so many people out there with good books and they need to give others a chance to use those books and to be enlightened by the information that is inside them. Once the books are returned users can begin borrowing again,” she stated.

According to Blanchard, persons who return those books would have their names removed from the defaulter’s list, which is a record of all the library users who currently have books overdue.

“When someone has an overdue book, the first step taken by the library is to notify them in writing. If we issue three notices and no response is given then their name is added to the list,” said Blanchard.

She revealed that the present list contains over 1 000 names but there was little the library could do to force people to return overdue books.

“There is no legislation through which the library can seek recourse for these unreturned books and it is something that I would like to see introduced in St. Kitts,” she said.

Blanchard declared the library’s intention to make Amnesty Month an annual event and suggested that the current amnesty period may be extended to January.