How People Use the Library

I have been using library services since I was very young. I remember getting my first library card when I was in the 5th grade on a very rainy day. I was so excited to be able to check out my own books and since the library was about 5 blocks from my house, it was also very accessible. But what I don't remember is having a lot of fines. I think I had some occasionally but thing major. I certainly never lost a library book and I never spilled anything on any of them either ever. The biggest fine I have ever had was in Hawaii when I owed about $35 because I was too lazy to get the books back on time. I never even questioned having to pay the fine. It was my own damn thought.
The major of the customers that use my library are very responsible users. However, I have a fair number of people that want to "make a deal" with fines. Some ask for the entire fee to be waived because they don't think they should pay for their inability to get to the library even though they had no admittedly have no good reason. It is a fine dance that we do so that I don't give away the store but at the same time am "humane and compassionate".
But what really irks me are two things. The first is a lot of people check out items and never return them. I have hundreds and thousands of items marked "Assumed Lost" this means that someone checked the book out and never returned it. On my shelf at any given time I may have one ASVAB and one GED book, however, the number that I would have if people returned them are about 25 copies of each. Please just bring me my books back! We keep the books so that you and everyone else can enjoy them. But if I have to keep buying books that will never be returned, then that means that I won't have enough money to buy some really cool books for people that do return them.
But the thing that truly pisses me off if theft. I looked at how much of my video collection is missing--a whopping 33%. Some of the missing items are honest mistakes--people think that they have checked out the video along with their GED and ASVAB books but somehow it didn't check out properly. But when we find empty DVD cases in the history section we know without a doubt that the DVD's have been STOLEN! I believe that there is a special place in HELL for people who steal from the library--their job will be to fan all those corporate execs with bonuses that robbed our country blind.