WORCESTER – The Worcester Public Library offers fee forgiveness throughout the month of March Meowness for lost or damaged WPL items in exchange for showing staff a picture of a cat.
To have fees forgiven, all you need to do is show staff a picture of a cat, any cat (your cat, a famous cat, a picture you drew of a cat, a shelter cat.. any cat). The library will also accept “honorary cats” as well. That can be a picture or drawing of any animal – a dog, raccoon, orca, even a capybara.
“We found that many of our patrons may have items that were misplaced during the pandemic as schools shuttered and we entered quarantine,” said WPL Executive Director Jason Homer. “We wanted to get everyone back in the library, and using our resources, and also wanted to create a really low barrier to get these fees forgiven.”
The rules for fee forgiveness are:
- Items must be owned by WPL (we cannot waive fees from other libraries)
- Items waived must be on lost or damaged items that are at least 2 months old;
- Items cannot be part of the Library of Things
- Accounts with 5 or more items will need to be reviewed; patrons will receive a response as soon as possible
- You are not eligible for forgiveness if your lost or damaged items can be viewed as an attempt to restrict access to diverse content
- Account holders must be present
Items are not guaranteed to be waived. Forgiveness will be given at the discretion of library staff.
Image courtesy of Worcester Public Library.
