Thumbs Down to Dallas Public Library officials for recommending (and to the City Council for approving) a $50-a-day fine to be charged for library books that aren’t returned after overdue notices are received and for recommending that subsequent arrest warrants be issued. Fifty dollars a day? Jail? The average cost of replacing a library book is only $20. Granted, there is a serious problem with library patrons failing to return books (currently, about $600,000 worth of them are overdue), but such strict penalties are ridiculous. If we expect to encourage literacy in our society, we cannot allow such roadblocks to learning. Even Benjamin Franklin probably had a few overdue books.
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