When the pandemic began, we suspended all fines for returning books late (though we’ve always had charges for losing a book). The last thing our students and staff needed to worry about during lockdown was trying to get items back to the library. That period effectively became a successful trial for a fine-free library - so we decided to make the change permanent.

We think our Flexible Loans system provides the fairest access to resources, ensuring that you have access to books until someone else needs them. For this system to work, please bring back items promptly to ensure everyone has access to the books they need.

Our students and staff are responsible, and respect the need for our resources to be available to the whole community. When you have a book on loan which is requested by another user, once that book becomes overdue you can’t borrow any more items until it is returned. 

If that book becomes overdue, we will consider the item lost and may decide to purchase a replacement copy in order to fulfil demand and ensure everyone has access to the resources they need. If we incur a cost because of this, a £50 replacement charge will be applied to the account holding the book.

This has proved to be enough to make sure people bring their books back.

Replacement charges still apply. You can find out more about that on our Lost Items page.

When you receive an email to say that your book has been requested, it’s because another user really needs it, just like you did. For the flexible loans system to work, please bring the requested items back promptly. You can always place a request back on the item once you have returned it - this will also indicate to us that the item is in high demand.

If you do not bring the books back in good time, we may consider the item lost and you may be liable for charges if we have to purchase a replacement copy. You can find out more about that on our Lost Items page.

More information about our replacement charges and waivers policy can be found on our Lost Items and exception webpage.

As a University, we have to use approved suppliers to purchase our replacement stock. In many cases, £50 does not always cover the full averaged cost of replacing lost items. Lost items, or items which are not returned so that other users can use them greatly inconvenience other members of our community that need those items.

We will only charge you for a lost item if we incur a replacement cost in order to fulfil a need or if the item is part of a Reading list.

If you have lost an item or cannot return an item, some waivers and exceptions do apply in limited circumstances.

That said, the easiest way to avoid any charges is to please bring your books back - we really don’t like charging anyone if we can avoid it!

We don’t always replace physical stock, but we’ll always replace it if we think there is a reasonable demand for the item. On some occasions, when an item is lost we will decide not to replace it. As there is no cost incurred to us, we will not pass a charge on to you - we don’t think this is fair. 

Replacement charges are designed to help contribute towards the costs we incur for replacing stock, and not designed to punish or ‘fine’ users. If we’ve removed a charge and emailed you, on this occasion, there is no further action (but in the future, please do try and get books back to us - we really like books!)

Charges for items borrowed through Interlending vary. This is because they are not a part of the University of York Library’s collections. If you lose an Interlending Loan, or do not return the loan by the due date, any charges are at the discretion of the institution the item was borrowed from.

If you have charges due to a Lost Interlending Loan, please get in touch with us and we will be able to discuss how we can help.

If you believe you have already returned an item that has been marked as Lost and/or you have been charged for a replacement, please get in touch with us as soon as possible - when items are overdue or prior to us applying charges, we send you several emails. It may be that the item was marked as Lost and you returned it after we needed to purchase a replacement item. In this case, the charge will stand.

However, if you think you returned the item before it was marked as Lost and it is still on your account, we have a Claimed Returned process in which we will carry out a thorough set of searches for the item to see if it was indeed returned. Full information on our Claimed Returned process can be found on our Lost Items page.