Are library cards more dangerous than credit cards? Are there limits on liability?

Here's a question for readers:

A New York library patron lost her library card and didn't realize it until three weeks later. She reported it lost as soon as she realized it. Meanwhile, someone else had checked out the maximum number of DVDs using her card and didn’t return them.  She estimates that she could be charged upwards of $1000. 

Does anyone know of any legal limitations on a library’s ability to charge a cardholder for items someone else checked out on a lost card in NY (or elsewhere)?  What's your library's policy on patron liability? Do you include it as part of the library application that the user signs?

Comments

[Barb Snow]

So I guess now citizens who want to enjoy their library will have to lobby for legislation to force libraries to check for other ID, compare signatures etc... so that this can't happen to them. In the end, that would cost everyone more than if Libraries just ate the occasional loss of goods due to such situations.

[Joe Lyons]

Most library circ policies contain something that addresses maximum fines. My library uses cost of the material as the maximum fine. Thus, in the DVD case, the initial cost to the library of purchasing the DVDs.