Fines, Fees & Borrowing Schedule

The Fines, Fees & Borrowing Schedule may be changed without notice at the discretion of the Library Director.

Borrowing Privileges

Most books, audiobooks, music CDs, and DVD sets with 3 disks or more can be checked out for 3 weeks.
Magazines, videos and DVDs are checked out for 7 days.
Patrons are limited to 3 YLD (recent popular releases) DVDs per library account.
Patrons are limited to 3 video games per library account.
Adult Book Club Express kits check out for six weeks. Patrons are limited to one kit at a time.
Juvenile Book Club Express kits also check out for six weeks. Patrons are limited to two kits at one time.

Borrowing Limits

The maximum number of items that can be checked out at any one time per library account is 99.
Douglas County residents may download three songs from Freegal per week. The weeks resets on Sundays at 10 p.m.
The checkout period for Overdrive materials is set by the patron at the time of checkout for seven, fourteen, or twenty-one days. Ten titles may be checked out at any given time.

Request Limit
Patrons are allowed a maximum of 99 requests on a card at any one time.

Renewal Limit
Library items may be renewed up to 8 times only, with the exception of magazines, YLD materials, Book Club Express Kits, and Inter-Library Loans which may not be renewed.

YLD DVDs Policy
DCL offers many copies of Your Lucky Day (YLD) DVDs of popular films for the first three months of release. Requests are not fulfilled during these first three months as all copies are put in the YLD collection. Patrons may put holds on items as soon as they are in the catalog. These requests will be fulfilled after the three month period.

YLD Policy
Your Lucky Day items are copies of very popular items that are not used to fulfill holds, but placed in the branches for patrons to check out. These items are labeled with a green shamrock. These items are first come-first served and are not renewable. DCL staff will not hold these items even for a short time, and staff is unable to verify an item is in the branch due to the first come-first served status.

Overdues & Fines
Patrons will be assessed a 10 cent daily fine for each day for each overdue item with the following exceptions:

The Library offers a grace period for most material (read further to identify those items that do not have a grace period). Items returned or renewed within three days of the due date will not be subject to a fine. Any item going past the grace period date will be assessed a fine from the due date
There is a $2.00 daily fine for reference materials and educational sets with no grace period.
Overdue Interlibrary Loan items cost $1.00 per day with no grace period.
Book Club Express Kits.

$1.00 per day with no grace period.
Missing or damaged books or guides cost $10.00 each. If you return a missing item within one year from the original pickup date, $5.00 will be waived or refunded.
Lost or damaged kits will incur a $140.00 charge.

If a patron accumulates a total of $20 or more in fines and fees, the patron may not check out any library materials until the fine is paid down. If the total exceeds $50, the account may be referred to a collection agency.

Patron Overdue Notification and Debt Collection Timeline

Number of days past due date:	Action:
12	DCL sends first overdue notice to patron via email or phone.
24	DCL sends second overdue notice to patron via email or phone.
36	Final notice sent by email or U. S. mail, saying patron will be charged for item(s) not returned.
48-69	On day 48, DCL puts replacement charge(s) on patron account. If account goes over $50:¹ "Billing Notice" is placed on patron account. Patron will receive an email or letter indicating that balance must be paid or the account will be sent to collections² for action. Patron has 21 days to respond once communication is sent out. "Billing Notice" is posted on the account each time an email or letter is sent.
70-77	DCL sends account to collections and adds a $10 collection agency fee to patron account. "Message to Borrower" and "See Supervisor" notes are placed on patron account, noting "Zero balance required to stop credit reporting."³ Collection agency sends patron a letter as soon as they receive patron account, usually the same day. Patron has three weeks to respond. Note: Collections is an intermediate step before the account is sent to a national consumer reporting agency. Local collection efforts do not affect patron credit rating.
Three weeks later	If no response, collection agency sends patron a second letter. If patron returns materials or makes a partial payment, agency sends another letter encouraging patron to resolve the remaining balance.
Two weeks later	If patron still owes the library money, collection agency calls the patron at home.
Four weeks later	Collection agency sends patron a final letter noting amount due.
Two weeks later	If patron fails to resolve account at this point, collection agency moves patron to Secondary Placement. This involves extensive research to find patrons who may have moved. Once agency locates patron, it sends a final letter informing patron that if he does not resolve the matter, he will be credit reported.
Two weeks after the final letter is sent	If the account is still unresolved, collection agency calls patron at home informing him that he is scheduled to be credit reported if he does not contact DCL to work out a solution. Agency then sends another letter (agency may make up to three more calls to resolve the matter).
69 days from first notification from DCL and 120 days after sending to collections (189 days total).	Patron is credit reported.

¹ If patron reports an item as lost and the replacement value of the item is over $50, or if total account fees/fines go over $50, the collection process starts.
² DCL's current collection agency is Unique Management Services, Inc.
³ Credit reported if account over $25 after all attempts to contact have been unsuccessful. Account must have a zero balance for 30 days to be removed from collection agency list.

Items Returned to Other Library Systems
The patron is responsible for the item until it reaches a DCL library. DCL is not responsible for these items.

Library Material Replacement
The replacement fee for library materials shall be the full retail value of the materials, as recorded in the library database or in Books in Print. DCL does not accept replacement copies or donations in lieu of payment.

Photocopying Charges
8 1/2" x 11" and 8 1/2" x 14"
10 cents per page and 20 cents per page double-sided.

11" x 17"
20 cents per page and 40 cents per page double-sided.

Computer Printouts
Black and white: 10 cents per page; color $1 per page.

FAXing
The library will FAX from the Highlands Ranch, Lone Tree, Parker, Philip S. Miller and Roxborough locations. Fee is $1.50 per page. The library cannot accept incoming Faxes and cannot send international Faxes.