Kieran’s Notes from the back room:    I was thinking about late fees the other day. While I didn’t have one right then, I have had them in the past. You would think that one week would be enough time to watch a DVD, but alas it was not. I had accrued a $5 fine by keeping the DVD an extra week. (Actually $5 isn’t that bad for a week late… compared to rental stores it is practically cheap, but for me, well $5 is $5 and money doesn’t grow on trees…honestly, being a library person, the guilt of returning the DVD late far outweighs the money.) What got me to thinking about fines were the two kids paying off their fines when I was at the front desk. One of the kids thought the library somehow covered all of the operating expenses with fines, fee and the copy machine. So I explained about taxes… (It was almost as bad as saying the tooth fairy isn’t real!) Yes, young fellow, you will be taxed for the rest of your life …but take heart, in some cases it will truly be for the greater good; like the idea of the fire department. I like knowing someone with a lot of water, expertise and bravery will come to my house if I need it. For me, that idea follows out to include the police, roadwork, schools, parks and yup, you guessed it, libraries. Libraries – with computers, books, music, video games and those darn DVDs I never seem to finish on time. I can only imagine what the late fines would look like if the library wasn’t funded by our tax dollars.. (picture a swirly dream sequence here) “The rental cost for that book is 99 cents a day and the DVD is $3.49 for three days. So that will be $6.46 sir. Cash or credit?” Gack! If you would like to talk with me about the greater good, Benjamin Franklin or the 2 mill property tax that the library collects, come by the back room and we’ll bust out the calculator and have a real good time! …Or we can talk about movies and DVDs.