Queens libraries have spent years lending "books" to risky borrowers at adjustable rates (from "free" to 25 cents a day!), and now that's coming back to haunt them. With literally millions of dollars lent out without hope of recovery, they are turning now to collections agencies to force their unreliable credit risks to pay up or risk becoming even riskier credit risks. Which means that the Judy Blume book you checked out from the young adult section in 1994 because it had dirty words in it and then lost will prevent you from ever buying a home.

[Late Library Books Can Take Toll on Credit Scores]