Late fees are controversial. When we got the memo about them from HQ this week, it provoked strong reactions throughout the library, except from Bob the Library Bear who has taken to rambling around the building again. He wasn’t on his windowsill when I opened up this morning. I hunted through the children’s section to no avail and eventually found him perched at the computer desk, paws on the keyboard, hunting for online honey sales websites.

The memo said that the region would be trialling a late fees amnesty for the month of January. Readers can return books, regardless of how long they have been overdue.

“That’s ridiculous!” said Linda, slamming a pile of books down on the meeting room table. “If we allow this they’ll think they can use the library like a bookshop b...

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