Those of us in the library industry following the trend of the implementation of passport services will want to pay attention to Yvonne Wenger’s Baltimore Sun article from June 4, 2018 entitled Baltimore’s Pratt Library Goes Fine Free Foe Overdue Books

While overdue fines will be eliminated, replacement charges will still be issued to those customers who never return checked out items.

It is interesting to note that the revenue incurred by fines will need to be made up for budgetary reasons. What service is very likely to be implemented to make up the shortfall of dollars? Passport Services! As Wenger writes, “She (Pratt Library CEO Heidi Daniel) is considering adding revenue-generating services, such as accepting passport applications, to help offset the loss.”

$100,000 is the dollar benchmark that will need to be recovered and I am 95% confident that the Pratt system will implement passport services in the next 6 to 12 months if not sooner. I use a 95% confidence level to account for a 5% chance of error.

Thus, we have one of the first articles that points to a direct relationship between the forgoing of fine revenue and the implementation of passport services to recover a library system’s lost revenue once fines are abandoned.

My professional opinion is that we will see this trend continue. Automatic renewals of checked out items, the increasing number of electronic materials which automatically return making them fine-less by their very existent, less purchasing of physical circulating materials, the labor involved in collecting fines with collection agencies, and a potential movement to go fine-free completely are driving an interest in passport services to recoup a revenue stream which is no longer as strong as it once was.