Overdue book amnesty to be held throughout March

 Overdue library books can be returned without charge throughout the month of March, LiveWire has announced.

The book amnesty means borrowers can return overdue books to any library without fear of fees – no matter how long they have been on loan for.

The move follows the return to pre-lockdown opening hours at LiveWire’s 13 libraries plus the return of events and clubs at the sites.

This week sees a range of activities and school visits take place for World Book Day – further reinforcing the return to normality for the library service.

This month’s initiatives is further evidence of the dedicated work of the library team since the start of the pandemic to ensure library members continued to have access to library services despite the challenges created by Covid-19 restrictions and concerns.

Since March 2020, with in person borrowing, Order and Collect, and the Home Library services, LiveWire staff have gone the extra mile to ensure Covid-19 restrictions and concerns didn’t stop readers being able to access books.

Rachel Ralston, LiveWire’s Strategic Library Manager, said: “Spring always feels like a fresh start so we wanted to take the opportunity to welcome people back to our libraries who may have not returned since before the pandemic. Please come back and see what we have going on and return any books you may have had for a while.

“We pride ourselves on the accessibility of our libraries and we do appreciate that people have had less of an opportunity to return books so we are wiping all overdue fees for the duration of March. We hope this will encourage people to return any books they may have. And a reminder that children’s books never generate overdue fees.

“So if you haven’t been to your local library for a while, and still have some library books at home, why not come back and return them free of charge – and take a look at our new titles at the same time!”