RAG week fines donation 2018

***UPDATE*** During RAG week we received £2,362 which will be donated to the charities below.

Library Services are pleased to announce that in collaboration with King’s RAG (Raising and Giving), largest student fundraising organisation within the university, we will be donating all the fines money you pay during RAG week, 5-10 March 2018, to the following charities:

 Mind

Action against hunger

Penguins against cancer

You can find out more about King’s RAG and follow them via these links:

https://www.kclsu.org/organisation/RAG/

https://twitter.com/KINGS_RAG

Last year during RAG week we donated £2419.79 to the Guy's Cancer Centre, Evelina Children's Hospital, Build with Nepal and the Queen Elizabeth Foundation for Disabled People (QEF) charities; to find out more about why we have library fines and how this money is spent, please see below.

Why do we fine and what do we do with this money?

Although we have a generous library collection of over 1.25 million books and ebooks, plus thousands of electronic resources, there is heavy demand on our stock and we need to ensure fair access. Our job is to help you get hold of the books that you want for your studies and research, and to help ensure that everyone returns their books on time so that other people can borrow them. Our aim is not to fine you, it is simply to get the books back on the shelves.

With that in mind we do a number of things to help you avoid a fine:

• We make it clear when a book is due back (via the receipt that is printed or emailed to you when you borrow a book).
• You can renew your books online 24/7 via the Library catalogue or King’s Mobile App.
• You can also renew by phone and on the self-service machines in the Library where you issue and return your books. 
• We email you when your books are about to become overdue so that you have time to return them.
• We have placed ‘book bins’ outside most of the libraries so that even when we are closed you can drop your books off. 
• Finally, our staff have discretion to waive fines where there are mitigating circumstances.

Nonetheless we really do want to get the books back for others to borrow, so if you ignore all of these things, we will fine you - and that includes staff too. Hopefully you’ll be aware that Library staff are here to help so if you are ever unsure when a book is due back or how to renew just contact us by phone, online chat, email or in person.

All of the money incurred through fines has been reinvested in the libraries. Over the last few years we have:

• Replaced books that were never returned.
• Undertaken acoustic work in the New Hunt’s House Library where students told us that the hard surfaces of the walls were amplifying noise.
• Refurbished group study rooms and installed more informal learning spaces at the Maughan Library.
• Provided whiteboards at St Thomas’s House Library. 
• Improved the graduate study room at New Hunt’s House Library.
• Purchased fantastic new self-service machines at all Libraries which can issue, return and renew, as well as display account information, even when staff aren’t around such as during our new extended opening hours.
• Purchased self-service laptop units and increased the numbers of laptops available at all the Libraries. 
• Refurbished the Maughan Enquiry Desk area including investing in a new books sorter which has helped return books back to the shelves in a matter of hours. 
• Improved the wayfaring signage at the Maughan Library.

We value your feedback

We genuinely value all your feedback on the service provided by your libraries; take a look at some of our responses to your feedback at our  feedback hub, and  have your say through our online form.