North Babylon (N.Y.) Public Library Director Marc Horowitz is asking for a court order to get three delinquent patrons to return 94 of the library’s DVDs checked out last September and October and to pay over $3,000 in fines.
“We had three people that systematically and methodically proceeded to take out . . . pretty much our whole DVD collection,” Horowitz said. Although the library has a five-DVD limit, Horowitz said there was no system at the time to show how many a patron already had checked out. Such a system has since been implemented, Long Island’s Newsday reported January 31.
The three patrons did not show up for their January 30 district court appointment. After hearing Horowitz’s case, court-appointed arbitrator Dennis Perlberg said a final decision would be sent in the mail.
Jerry Nichols, director of the Suffolk Cooperative Library System, supported Horowitz’s action. “It’s the libraries’ responsibility to protect the property of the community,” he said.
Posted February 4, 2002.