Open column

FRANK COLE, Director of Libraries & Arts, Camden, writes: In April 1976 you allowed me to comment on the March editorial which had expressed romantic views on fines in public libraries. I wrote that within eighteen months of the suspension of fines in Camden, the number of Overdue books and recordings had risen by 120% and that, as a consequence, the penalties were to be re‐imposed. I am now able to write that, in a five month period since the re‐introduction of fines, the increase in overdues has fallen dramatically to 14% above the level of October 1973‐February 1974, when fines were last charged.