Wellington City Libraries are seeing a 30 per cent surge in new customers and over a million books borrowed by children and teenagers each year since introducing their popular fines-free policy almost three years ago.

The number of new library users rose by 14 per cent to 10,824 in the first year ending 30 June 2023. This growth more than doubled in the following year, reaching around 30 per cent or 12,296 users. Notably, in just the first nine months of the current financial year, the number of new library users has already surged to almost 10,000.

“We’re thrilled to see both a significant increase in new library members and strong borrowing numbers among children and teenagers,” says Mayor Tory Whanau.

“This proves that our decision to eliminate fines is enabling more of our young people to discover the wonders of reading and enjoy the welcoming environment in our libraries.

“It’s also about equity – providing equal access to information, resources, and learning opportunities for Wellingtonians, regardless of their financial situation,” adds Mayor Whanau.

Councillor Rebecca Matthews, who championed the removal of fines, said the impressive increase in new users demonstrated the positive impact of removing financial barriers.

“The problem with library fines wasn’t that the books didn’t come back - it was that the people never did. Now our libraries are truly for everyone.

“With job losses and cost of living pressures, our libraries provide a place where cost is no barrier for rangatahi to enjoy, learn, and imagine,” says Cr Matthews.

When the fines-free policy was introduced on 1 July 2022, a total of $541,198.78 in outstanding debt was written off Wellington City Council’s books. Before this change, Wellington City Libraries collected $335,171 in fines in Financial Year 2020-21 and $227,668 in 2021-2022.

Statistics from the Wellington City Libraries show that the removal of fines has increased circulation and readership within the community.

As the number of new library users surged, the number of physical books borrowed rose by 2.5 per cent to 1.9 million in the first year after fines were abolished. This initial growth then jumped fourfold to about 10 per cent, meaning 2 million books were borrowed by the end of June 2024.

Children and teenagers borrow over a million books annually, and they are on track to maintain this momentum, having already borrowed more than 808,000 in the first nine months of the current financial year.

Abolishing fines also led to a spectacular return of long overdue books – a 131 per cent jump in the first year and a whopping 191 per cent the year after. Even more striking, kids and teens returned a massive 153 per cent more overdue books in the first year, and around 190 per cent more in the following year.

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