LIBRARY users with unpaid fines will soon be barred from borrowing library materials unless they pay up.

The National Library Board on Thursday announced that from April 1, members with unpaid fines and fees will have their borrowing privileges disrupted until the outstanding amount has been settled.

Users will therefore no longer be allowed to accumulate unpaid fines and fees.

Currently, only those with more than $6 in unpaid fines are barred from borrowing library materials.

On average, most books are overdue by about 10 to 20 days.

NLB is owed about $7 million in unpaid fines by about 750,000 members. It will be sending reminder mailers to these members from Feb 2, which will also inform them of the changes in library policy.

Members who incur fines and fees above $0.30 and which are outstanding for more than three months will receive reminder mailers from April. If the outstanding amount has not been settled after another three months, a second reminder notice will be sent and a $1 admin fee imposed.

In another move, the NLB will also remove the $0.50 renewal fee for each borrowed item. All borrowed items can only be renewed before or on the due date.

NLB said the new policies are a bid to encourage responsible library usage.

'These policy changes encourage the prompt return of library materials. The majority of members will have better access to library resources and benefit from the faster turnaround of resources. Ultimately, this will lead to better use of public resources and benefit more people,' said NLB Chief Executive Dr N Varaprasad.

The NLB mailed reminders to over 800,000 last September, asking them to pay overdue book fines to recover over $5 million from errant borrowers. Some had not paid up as far back as 1999.

The NLB wrote off $3.5 million in outstanding fines in 2006.

About $1.3 million on unpaid library fines was recovered.