Winnipeg libraries take huge hit from lost, unreturned items
John, 71, has loved the library as long as he can remember, having popped in once a week for years. On Friday, he checked out a backpack's worth of hardcover sci-fi and fantasy novels. Even he has, at least once, been fined for losing a library book.
'I tried to replace it, and they wouldn't take it, they wanted the one that I took out,' he joked.
MALAK ABAS / FREE PRESS
John, 71, loves a good book. He's taken out hundreds from the library, and admits he's lost at least one.
He's not the only one. Records released under FIPPA show the cost of Winnipeg Public Library material marked 'lost' or 'not returned' increased exponentially from 2020 to 2024.
The lowest-cost loss in those years was in 2021, when the library lost $77,519 worth of material. In 2024, the most recent data available, city libraries had their highest yearly loss, $212,832. The amount doesn't include material that has been removed due to wear and tear.
When told about the dollar amounts, John shrugs. The library could do more to prevent losses, he said, but he guesses that the numbers reflect more and more people enjoying the library, as the cost to buy books gets higher.
'I make sure I return books in good condition. I mean, I like books, and I think the library's a great place,' said John, who didn't want to give his surname.
'If there wasn't the library, a lot of people wouldn't be reading. It's so expensive to buy a book at the drug store or something.'
Provincial data show Winnipeg Public Library branches have nearly 900,000 print items, 43,337 audio items, and 43,606 video items, along with a number of digital, serial and miscellaneous material. The operating expenditures for physical material was $1.66 million in 2024.
Pam McKenzie, a communications officer with the City of Winnipeg, said a number of changes in the past five years that could be responsible for the increase in lost and not returned items: closures due to COVID-19 in 2020 and 2021, the post-pandemic spike in borrowed material, the removal of fines for late returns as of Jan. 1, 2021 (although charges are imposed for lost or damaged items).
Some libraries have expanded hours over the past five years and inflation has resulted in library items being more costly.
While most Winnipeg library items are returned on time, the items most often not returned are adult non-fiction book, DVDs, and video games.
'Providing access to material and information are core library services,' McKenzie said in a statement. 'We encourage all customers to return their items so they can be enjoyed by others.'
If an item is overdue by 21 days, its cost is charged to the cardholder, and the charge is removed once they return it.
If a reader owes $50 or more, or if they have 10 or more overdue items, their card is suspended. Depending on the situation, the account could be sent to a collections agency.
At the South Central Regional Library, which includes rural branches in Altona, Manitou, Miami, Morden, and Winkler, fines for late materials still exist.
They send out automatic billing notices when a book is late, but will refund the cost if it's returned within three months. It's relatively rare for a book not to make it back after that, said SCRL director Cathy Ching.
'It has definitely dropped the amount of payments we have received on lost books, because people want their money back,' she said. 'When you have to pay full price for a hardcover book, it makes you look a little harder.'
Fines total $20,000 a year for the seven libraries, Ching said, which is spent on programs.
The SCRL faced threats of defunding over books about sex and gender education in their libraries in 2023.
Ching said some cardholders would take out controversial books and refuse to return them during that time, choosing to pay the fine instead in hopes of permanently removing it from their collection, but library staff would use the funds to purchase the book again. One book for young adults, Sex is a Funny Word by Cory Silverburg, was taken and re-purchased multiple times.
Another recent rash of missing library books had a common theme — they were all paperbacks with relatively steamy front covers.
Wednesdays
What's next in arts, life and pop culture.
'It really is a matter of trust to go to the counter with whatever you want to read and put it there,' Ching said with a laugh.
The SCRL has one of the highest ratio of population to active users in Manitoba. Just over 70 per cent of their collective population of 46,665 people uses the library. Ching said all libraries, in Winnipeg or otherwise, share a sense of pride in maintaining their collections.
'It doesn't matter the size of your library, you're proud of what you offer people, and you want to be able to offer the best services you can with the budget you have,' she said.
'(It) doesn't matter if your budget's large or small, it's ownership. You look after your collection like your children, sometimes.'
malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca
Malak AbasReporter
Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg's North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak.
Every piece of reporting Malak produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
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Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
