Working at a public library in South Africa. Our overdue due fines are 20 cents per book per day for adults and young adults, and 20 cents per week per book for kids under 13. Books are issued for 2 weeks and 2 online/telephonic renewals are allowed.

Overall, no one really complains about fines for books. But fines for audio visual materials can go up to R 6.00 per day (and some items are only issued for 2-7 days), replacement cards are R 24.00 (R 6.00 for pensioners) and reservations are charged at R 8.00 per book. These are the charges that people make a fuss about i.e they won't borrow any more audiovisuals, won't get another card or place anymore holds. Our stats go down and we then have to deal with even more budget cuts.

It bugs me that the items we issue for the shortest loan period have the highest overdue rates. Yes they are valuable items and we have very limited stock. But who has time to get back to the library in 2 days?!

Mind you, our public libraries here don't accept donations anymore (due to fraud and corruption issues in other departments)