New law could send police after overdue books

La Crosse already has collection company

Libraries in the state of Wisconsin may start calling the police when a book comes overdue.

It sounds a little extreme, but a new law will allow public libraries to send collection agencies or the police to go after borrowed items that were never returned.

“Sometimes it’s almost as if people don’t think there’s going to be any consequences,” Library director Kelly Krieg-Sigman said. “’What the heck, it’s just a library book, it’s not hurting anybody.’ Well, sometimes it is.”

That law, however, won’t affect the La Crosse Public Library, which has employed a collection company for 14 years.

Krieg-Sigman hopes the law makes people aware that keeping books or videos forever is not encouraged.

Last year, the La Crosse library recovered $150,000 worth of materials that had been borrowed long ago. 

“What the governor’s action with the new bill has done,” Krieg-Sigman said, “is simply, make a clarification so that everybody in the state, can feel comfortable allowing their library to contract with a collection agency or take other steps to try and retrieve overdue materials.”