{"id":12054,"date":"2021-07-07T22:28:46","date_gmt":"2021-07-07T22:28:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=12054"},"modified":"2021-07-07T22:28:46","modified_gmt":"2021-07-07T22:28:46","slug":"fine-free-libraries-offer-more-for-members","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2021\/07\/07\/fine-free-libraries-offer-more-for-members\/","title":{"rendered":"Fine-free libraries offer more for members"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A fines-free initiative introduced to support library members during COVID-19 has been extended indefinitely by City of Newcastle.<br \/>\nFines for overdue library loans were temporarily suspended as part of City of Newcastle&#8217;s $5.5 million Community and Economic Resilience Package (CERP), which was announced on 20 March last year as part of a targeted response to the growing impacts of COVID-19.<br \/>\nFines are seen as a barrier to membership for some of the most disadvantaged members of the community, creating unnecessary stress and discouraging them from engaging with the wide variety of free resources on offer at our libraries.<br \/>\nBut since the onset of the pandemic and the removal of the overdue fees, membership at Newcastle Libraries has risen by more than 7,500 people.<br \/>\nThe success of the fines-free concept has led to its long-term continuation, creating another incentive for people to sign up to become members.<br \/>\nCity of Newcastle and Newcastle Libraries prioritise customer-centred services and positive member experiences, with greater access, increased services and additional ways to connect.<br \/>\nFees for lost and damaged items continue to apply.<br \/>\nMembership is free and open to anyone who lives, works or regularly travels in the Newcastle region. Find out more about becoming a member at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/newcastle.nsw.gov.au\/library\/home\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">newcastle.nsw.gov.au\/library<\/a>\u00a0or contact the Libraries team on 4974 5300.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A fines-free initiative introduced to support library members during COVID-19 has been extended indefinitely by City of Newcastle. Fines for overdue library loans were temporarily suspended as part of City of Newcastle&#8217;s $5.5 million Community and Economic Resilience Package (CERP), which was announced on 20 March last year as part of a targeted response to &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2021\/07\/07\/fine-free-libraries-offer-more-for-members\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Fine-free libraries offer more for members&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newcastle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12054\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}