--- title: Five Best Ideas: Library Late Fees Are Counterproductive description: Library late fees are counterproductive, how AI referees can change officiating at the Super Bowl and more. canonical: https://time.com/4662555/library-late-fees-are-counterproductive/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-02-07T17:00:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:59:05.803Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Library Late Fees Are Counterproductive og:description: And four ore of today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4662555/library-late-fees-are-counterproductive/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Library Late Fees Are Counterproductive twitter:description: And four ore of today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Library Late Fees Are Counterproductive by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Feb 7, 2017 5:00 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Feb 7, 2017 5:00 PM UTC **1\.** [**Library late fees are counterproductive.**](http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2017/02/librarians%5Fare%5Frealizing%5Fthat%5Foverdue%5Ffines%5Fundercut%5Flibraries%5Fmissions.html) By Ruth Graham in _Slate_ **2\.** [**Here’s how AI referees can change officiating at the Super Bowl.**](http://readwrite.com/2017/02/04/what-would-the-super-bowl-look-like-with-ai-referees-and-other-smart-technologies-dl1/) By Alston Ghafourifar in _ReadWrite_ **3\.** [**Why your kids ask “Why?” And how to answer.**](https://aeon.co/ideas/why-children-ask-why-and-what-makes-a-good-explanation) By Matteo Colombo in _Aeon_ **4\.** [**What if your phone could make clothes based on the life you lead?**](https://techcrunch.com/2017/02/06/google-hms-ivyrevel-will-make-you-a-dress-customized-using-your-personal-data/) By Sarah Perez in _TechCrunch_ **5\.** [**The war on cancer should include prevention, not just finding a cure.**](http://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/2/4/14501190/redefine-cancer-cure) By Ravi Parikh in _Vox_  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4662555/library-late-fees-are-counterproductive/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4662555/library-late-fees-are-counterproductive/"},"headline":"Library Late Fees Are Counterproductive","datePublished":"2017-02-07T17:00:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:59:05.803Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4662555/library-late-fees-are-counterproductive/","keywords":["Innovation","Cancer","Super Bowl topic","kids","Phone","Library"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4662555/library-late-fees-are-counterproductive/","name":"Library Late Fees Are Counterproductive"}}]}] ```