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Registration
Residents of the City of Blair will be issued, without charge, borrower cards valid for a period of three years. Non-city residents will be charged a non-refundable $25.00 fee per family for one year of borrowing privileges or $15.00 for six months, or $10.00 for four months. (For library purposes, a family will be considered all individuals in a family unit who reside at the same address.) Resident students of Dana College with a current, valid student ID will be granted borrowing privileges for the current enrollment period.

All city and county residents must complete registration forms before a library card will be issued. If the registrant is a child under 14 years of age, a parent or guardian must sponsor the borrower. In all cases address verification may be required before a library card is issued.  Borrower cards are not transferable.   A charge of $1.00 will be made for issuing a new card, if the library card is lost or destroyed before the original card expires.

Registration and circulation statistics are reported monthly to the library board and the city council, and yearly to the Nebraska Library Commission.   All individual registration and circulation records of this library are confidential and shall not be disclosed to or examined by the public. The individual circulation record is defined as materials checked out by the patron.

Materials

Equipment may be reserved in advance by calling the library.   Patrons must have a current library card to check out equipment.

Adult patrons may check out up to 15 items, except for children's books (maximum 6) and videos (4). Children are limited to six books and nine other items. New registrants may check out two circulating items. When these items are returned in satisfactory condition, the registrant will be allowed full borrowing privileges.  Teachers, with current library cards who are employed by the Blair Community Schools, may check out up to 15 books for classroom use.

The library staff will not deny check-out privileges on circulating materials to any borrower in good standing.  This means that children will not be denied the right to borrow adult materials, except videos.

Reserved Materials
The library will reserve circulating materials on a first-come first-served basis. Patrons will be called to notify them of the availability of their reserves. Reserved material must be checked out within five days or it will be returned to circulation.

Lost, Damaged, and Overdue Materials
Library materials are overdue if they are not returned to the circulation desk or book drop by closing time on the date the item is due. Borrowing privileges will be suspended for any patron who has materials over thirty days overdue, unless special arrangements have been made with the library director.  Patrons may be charged appropriate fines or fees whenever delinquent materials are returned.  If a patron continues to act irresponsibly with library materials, the director with the consent of the library board may impose a special limit of items a patron is allowed to check out.

Overdue notices are sent monthly notifying patrons of overdue items. After a patron has been sent two standard overdue notices, the third and final notice will be a letter sent from the library director stating that the items need to be returned immediately. After the item is six months overdue and the patron has taken no action, the library will declare the item lost and withdraw the item from the collection.   The patron will be charged the replacement cost of the item and a $5.00 administrative fee for each item not returned.  Only one overdue notice will be sent to patrons with one item overdue valued under $5.00 and no administrative fee will be added.  Delinquent patrons with a bill for lost items totaling $25.00 or more will be turned over to the city for collection.  If an item is returned to the library after the item has been declared lost and withdrawn from the collection, the patron will still be charged with the replacement cost of the item and the $5.00 administrative fee.   The patron will lose checkout privileges until full restitution has been made.

Section "Lost, Damaged, and Overdue Materials" revised and approved by the Library Board of Trustees on 1/15/07.

Fines for Overdue Materials

The fines for delinquent materials are shown in the table below.

Fines are not assessed on days the library is closed.  A   grace period of 4 days will be allowed on all materials except videos.  If the patron returns overdue items within the grace period, no fine shall be collected. Fines accumulate during the grace period and materials returned after the grace period will be assessed fines from the due date.  Fines in excess of $1.00 must be paid before a borrower may check out additional library materials.  Senior citizens (65 and over) will not be charged overdue fines, but will be charged for lost or damaged items.   Cards issued to local organizations and to local teachers (pre-approved) using books in the class room or at the organization's facility will not be charged late fees, but will be charged for lost or damaged items.

Fines for Damaged Materials

The table below indicates appropriate fines for specific types of damage to library materials.

* Patrons have three weeks to return missing covers. Library staff will put note on card as to when the item was returned to the library.   If the patron does not return the cover within three weeks a fine will be placed on the patron's record and the item will be bar coded and returned to circulation.

Section "Fines for Damaged Materials" revised and approved by the Library Board of Trustees on 9/8/03.