Every now and then, an overdue book will make its way back to the Wagga City Library from an overseas destination.
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Over the years, according to Claire Campbell, the manager of library services at Wagga City Council, items that were assumed to be lost will also simply unexpectedly pop up in a returns tray.
In a bid to encourage people to return overdue items, and to encourage visitors to continue borrowing, fines for overdue books in all Riverina libraries have been officially, and permanently, ditched as of Wednesday.
"A lot of public libraries have got rid of fines in an effort to get people to borrow more books," Ms Campbell said.
"We want people to come and borrow and we think, for example, parents will be less concerned about letting their children borrow if they're not going to be fined because they are a bit late getting them back.
"I've here for 25 years and we've had books we thought had gone missing that have been returned, or we've had people who've gone overseas and then found the book and posted it back to us.
"Sometimes we will get back something that's quite out of date and we wouldn't put it on the shelf, but other times it could be something that's quite valuable and it's wonderful that it's come back.
"We'll see what happens in the coming months."
Riverina Regional Library advisory committee chairman Dallas Tout said the decision to waive fines for overdue books was not confined to this area.
"It's a growing trend across the industry that's shown that lifting fines actually increases visitation and doesn't impact on people returning books. But it does allow those who felt they couldn't visit because of a fine to stop worrying and come back in," Councillor Tout said.
"In neighbouring councils, where this has been implemented, they've had substantial increases in visitation just from people who were able to feel comfortable coming back to the library. But it's also great that people are returning overdue books."