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Our Fine Free Libraries FAQ

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From 3 February we will stop charging fines for overdue books at all our libraries. We'll share answers to your common questions here.

If you have a question about our Fine Free Library policy which we haven’t included here, then please contact our Library team.

The Fine Free policy starts on 3 February

From 3 February 2023 you will no longer be charged fines for overdue items, and any outstanding fines will be cleared from your library account.

The Fine Free policy doesn’t just apply to books

The Fine Free policy applies to all loans items borrowed from any of our libraries – including books, CDs and DVDs.

Continue to return recalled books so that your fellow students can access them

The books you borrow will automatically renew on your account unless someone else places a reservation on them. If the book is reserved by another borrower, you will receive a recall notice via email asking you to return it by the due date shown on your account.

We all rely on books being returned on time by another borrower every now and then, so do make sure you return your books by the due date.

Return your overdue items within 7 days, or we’ll consider it lost and may charge you

After 7 days, if you have not returned the overdue item, we will consider that the item to be lost. We will need make it available for other students, so we will begin the process of invoicing you for the replacement cost.

Now is a great time to return our books, even if you’ve had them for a while

We won’t charge you a penny, so this is a great time to return the book you have had on loan for longer than you should have!

We are replacing fines with a new system to make sure our books are returned by their due date

We want to keep things fair for everyone. We all rely on books being returned on time by another borrower every now and then. We are replacing fines with a new system to make sure our books are returned by their due date.

If you do not return items by their due date, you will not be able to borrow library laptops, place reservations, take new books out, or renew titles already on your account.

We will email you to let you know your item needs to be returned

If an item you have on loan needs to be returned, we’ll email you to let you know. If this happens you must return the item on time to avoid it becoming overdue.

Check your student email regularly to make sure that you keep up to date with the university, your library account and your course, so that you can get the most out of university life. Add your email account to your mobile device and keep up to date wherever you are.

The Fine Free policy applies to all our students and staff

Our Fine Free policy applies to all books, CDs and DVDs borrowed from our libraries, and to all our staff and students.

Removing library fines is one way we are supporting you with the cost of living

We appreciate that the current increase in cost of living may impact you or people close to you in different ways. We want to do all we can to remove barriers to access within our libraries and improve your experience of our libraries. Removing fines is one way we are supporting you.

As well as going Fine Free, across our university we are doubling the total funds available in our Hardship Funds, and in collaboration with Greenwich Students’ Union have developed a Cost of Living checklist with some useful tips, we share these and other initiatives to support you here.

Current staff; Current students

Information and Library Services Directorate