Natrona County Public Library Honored for Foregoing Overdue Book Fines
The Natrona County Public Library abolished overdue library fees in June of 2020 and, for this act and many others, they have been awarded the 'Librarian at Your Service Award' by Unique Management Services, an organization dedicated to "material-recovery service for libraries."
"A new awards program honoring libraries for their exceptional community impacts is celebrating 17 winners in the Midwest Region (Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Wyoming)," a press release from Unique read. "Unique Management Services, the world’s leading library material recovery and patron communication services company, created three awards to celebrate high-impact libraries for providing vital services, protecting public assets and keeping patrons in good standing.
"Together, these 17 regional winners from across the U.S. recovered a combined $2.2 million in overdue materials and brought more than 20,000 patrons back into good standing, all while providing outstanding service to their patrons and communities.
Unique honored 72 total libraries in this year’s awards across four geographic regions in three award areas including these midwestern regional winners."
Natrona County Library was the recipient of the 'Librarian at Your Service Award,' which honors "libraries and librarians who have provided exceptional service to their patroms, including smart utilization of Unique's Gentle Nudge material recovery, MessageBee, UniqueChat, Curbside Communications and call services."
NCPL was ranked about hundreds of libraries across the United States to earn recognition in this the very first awards program from Unique.
“This library staff is incredible,” Natrona County Public Library's Executive Director, Lisa Scroggins said. “They excel at providing engaging and relevant programming, but what really sets them apart is their attention to detail when it comes to providing superior customer service."
Using Unique’s call services, the library recently removed what is often cited as the most common barrier to using a library – overdue fines, but getting long overdue items back into circulation remains a priority.
"In addition to using Unique to help us recover overdue materials, we also use their call services which allows NCL to capitalize on our amazing staff, allowing them to invest in in-person, face-to-face relationships.”
While recovering overdue materials still remains of importance, Scroggins said that she doesn't want that factor to prevent people from utilizing the library. Their partnership with Unique goes a long way towards recovering overdue materials without charging patrons. This gives the community even more of a chance to experience all of the incredible stories, events, and opportunities that the Natrona County Public Library offers every single day.