From April 8 to April 10, students could submit fun photos via email or bring overdue items to the Staples library to forgive any fines under $6 in lieu of the solar eclipse.
Librarians Jennifer Cirino and Nicole Moeller sent out a school-wide email on April 8 in order to collect items like books and library equipment before the school year ends. They accepted either the return of the overdue item or a photo from the prompts in the email.
“Each year we do what’s called an ‘amnesty week,’ it really encourages students to bring our stuff back cause that’s our ultimate goal,” Moeller said. “Sometimes by encouraging that special week where students, if they do bring it back, their fines are forgiven, that also helps.”
Despite Staples being the only school in the district to charge students for overdue items, it is not the first to have an amnesty period. They replicated the concept from a public library in Worcester, Massachusetts.
We want to see that, tell a joke, show us a pet, show us a talent, and we vote on it and if it is something that we feel is wonderful, we will forgive it. You can just about do anything and we will forgive it.
— Paraprofessional Cathy Carlson
“Some other libraries had also done ‘March Meow-ness,’ Cirino said, “so that patrons could bring in a picture of their cat and get their fines forgiven.”
Usually, the period is held after midterms, but because of the solar eclipse, the librarians thought the start of the fourth quarter would be a better time.
“It’s usually sometime around, the last time we did it was at the midpoint of the year, right after midterms,” Cirino said. “We just coincided it with the solar eclipse cause it was a fun event.”
The maximum amount of charges that can be forgiven is six dollars, according to paraprofessional Cathy Carlson and the amnesty email.
“[Six dollars] is the limit because some people have many many things overdue and we have to be able to use the fines for different projects we do with students in the library,” Carlson said.
So far, the library has received 20 submissions, 10 of which were for fine forgiveness. They have seen jiu jitsu medals, pictures of young siblings, solar eclipse totalities, special talents like double jointed thumbs and more.
“We want to see that, tell a joke, show us a pet, show us a talent, and we vote on it and if it is something that we feel is wonderful, we will forgive it,” Carlson said. “You can just about do anything and we will forgive it.
