{"closest_prior_art":[{"name":"Kalamazoo Public Library, A Fine-Free Future","overlap":"Separates overdue fines from replacement charges, compares current and proposed renewal, notice, blocking, billing, and collection processes, estimates financial and workflow effects, and defines post-change measures including checkout length, holds, and replacement-charge states.","remaining_difference":"It does not disclose a privacy-preserving historical replay of several counterfactual rule sets, transaction-level divergence and reconciliation testing, or evidence-gated selection among pause, staged, hybrid, and prospective-rollback paths.","source_ids":["SRC2"]},{"name":"San Francisco Public Library, Long Overdue","overlap":"Uses local account, branch, patron, staff, and peer-library evidence; distinguishes daily fines from billed-item fees; analyzes blocked-account inequity; and recommends coordinated changes to billed status, blocks, notices, automatic renewal, and communications.","remaining_difference":"It recommends a defined fine-free configuration rather than using a shadow ledger to compare multiple transition tempos, trace rival mechanisms, test ledger reconciliation, and govern prospective rollback.","source_ids":["SRC1"]},{"name":"Alameda County Library, Two Fineless Years","overlap":"Historically evaluates a no-fines experiment across circulation, returns, costs, fairness, patron relationships, operations, and possible reinstatement; it also documents heterogeneous results from other trial periods.","remaining_difference":"It lacks modern ILS-level counterfactual replay, privacy controls, typed account-state divergence, finance-ledger reconciliation, subgroup gates, and non-retroactive rollback rules.","source_ids":["SRC3"]}],"contrastive_claim_falsifier":"Falsify the remaining claim if a reconciled sample shows that removing daily accrual leaves eligibility, notices, return timing, replacement conversion, appeals, overrides, and finance records invariant, or if the proposed shadow classifications do not predict account-state divergence better than a simpler governed single-rule change.","contrastive_claim_remaining":"Beyond ordinary fine elimination or a monitored fine-free pilot, a privacy-preserving multi-rule shadow replay can reveal consequential threshold, notice, replacement, override, and ledger paths that should determine transition tempo and permit only prospective, non-retroactive rollback.","experiment_id":"eoa_inverse_innovation_exp13_second_slot_policy60_20260806","gates":{"adequate_source_search":{"rationale":"Four search lanes covered direct fine-free transitions, older no-fines and amnesty terminology, operational policies and professional guidance, and combinations involving blocks, notices, renewals, lost-item billing, privacy, pilots, and counterfactual replay. Four opened sources span four publishers and include primary, official, and first-party material.","source_ids":["SRC1","SRC2","SRC3","SRC4"],"status":"PASS"},"bounded_next_test":{"rationale":"A stratified twelve-month sample and read-only replay of four specified rule sets is finite, auditable, reversible, and capable of measuring divergent account states, notices, blocks, replacement conversions, and reconciliation failures before any patron-facing change. Data minimization and access controls remain prerequisites.","source_ids":["SRC1","SRC2","SRC4"],"status":"PASS"},"distinct_testable_claim":{"rationale":"The retained prior art already covers component separation, process redesign, pilots, and outcome monitoring, but does not disclose the proposed combination of multi-rule historical replay, mechanism discrimination, ledger reconciliation, transition-tempo gates, and prospective-only rollback. Its incremental value can be tested against a simpler rule change.","source_ids":["SRC1","SRC2","SRC3"],"status":"PASS"},"no_obvious_safety_or_authority_stop":{"rationale":"The first step is read-only, leaves production obligations unchanged, restricts identifying and title data, assigns decision authority, and includes privacy and reconciliation halts. ALA guidance requires restricted access, minimization, anonymized reporting, retention limits, and compliance with applicable law; these are conditions to verify, not an evident categorical stop.","source_ids":["SRC2","SRC4"],"status":"PASS"},"supported_problem":{"rationale":"Official library analyses show that daily fines interact with monetary thresholds, account blocks, renewals, notices, billed-item conversion, staff work, and access. They also show income- and branch-associated disparities and historically mixed trial outcomes, making transition effects and mechanism attribution visible rather than hypothetical.","source_ids":["SRC1","SRC2","SRC3"],"status":"PASS"}},"prior_art_disposition":"ADJACENT_PRIOR_ART","problem_evidence":{"finding":"The problem is supported: SFPL found substantial patron debt, fine-based blocking, and disproportionate effects in economically stressed communities; KPL documented a $10 balance threshold, overdue-item blocks, and lower-income branches with more blocked accounts. Both reports had to redesign notices, renewals, blocks, and lost-item billing separately, while the historical Alameda review found both successful and failed no-fines trials.","source_ids":["SRC1","SRC2","SRC3"],"status":"SUPPORTED"},"research_id":"eoa_inverse_innovation_exp13_light_screen_20260806","schema_version":1,"screen_id":"E13P099","screen_survival":true,"search_lanes":{"component_combination":{"no_result_note":"No retained source disclosed the full combination of privacy-preserving counterfactual transaction replay, circulation-to-finance reconciliation, threshold hysteresis testing, and prospective-only rollback; the closest reports combine several adjacent components.","queries":["library counterfactual overdue fines transactions","public library eliminate overdue fines shadow accounting historical transactions pilot replacement fees borrowing blocks study","library fine free transition pilot evaluation return rates replacement billing account blocks notices","site:ala.org privacy guidelines library circulation records data retention patron confidentiality"],"source_ids":["SRC1","SRC2","SRC4"]},"direct_problem_and_intervention":{"no_result_note":null,"queries":["public library eliminate overdue fines shadow accounting historical transactions pilot replacement fees borrowing blocks study","library fine-free transition pilot evaluation return rates replacement billing account blocks notices"],"source_ids":["SRC1","SRC2"]},"products_practices_and_standards":{"no_result_note":null,"queries":["overdue fines library systems threshold blocks replacement charges fine free policy report","site:ala.org resolution monetary library fines social inequity 2019 pdf","site:ala.org privacy guidelines library circulation records data retention patron confidentiality","fine-free library pilot overdue fines evaluation"],"source_ids":["SRC1","SRC2","SRC4"]},"synonyms_and_historical_terms":{"no_result_note":null,"queries":["library fines historical terminology extended use fees no fines experiment circulation","library no-fines policy amnesty overdues experimental period reinstatement"],"source_ids":["SRC3"]}},"sources":[{"claims_supported":["Overdue fines can create access barriers and disproportionate burdens across communities.","Daily overdue fines can be separated from billed-item fees for lost, damaged, or long-overdue materials.","A fine-free transition can include changed billed-status timing, account blocking, notices, automatic renewal, staff and patron evidence, and operational projections."],"publisher":"San Francisco Public Library and San Francisco Office of the Treasurer and Tax Collector","source_id":"SRC1","source_type":"PRIMARY_RESEARCH","title":"Long Overdue: Eliminating Fines on Overdue Materials to Improve Access to San Francisco Public Library","url":"https://sfpl.org/sites/default/files/archive/2020-02/Fine-Free-Report011719.pdf"},{"claims_supported":["Fine policy combines grace periods and monetary thresholds with account blocks.","A proposed fine-free configuration can preserve replacement billing while changing renewals, notices, overdue-item blocks, billing timing, and collection processes.","A first-party transition report can specify monitoring of circulation, holds, checkout duration, and multiple replacement-charge states."],"publisher":"Kalamazoo Public Library","source_id":"SRC2","source_type":"FIRST_PARTY_PRODUCT","title":"A Fine-Free Future","url":"https://www.kpl.gov/app/uploads/2022/03/Fine-Free-Report-Final.pdf"},{"claims_supported":["No-fines experiments and amnesty programs predate modern fine-free initiatives by decades.","Historical evaluations considered circulation, returns, costs, fairness, patrons, operations, and possible reinstatement.","Reported outcomes varied across libraries, supporting bounded local testing rather than assuming a universal linear response."],"publisher":"ERIC, U.S. Department of Education","source_id":"SRC3","source_type":"PRIMARY_RESEARCH","title":"Two Fineless Years: A History, Analysis, and Evaluation","url":"https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED072788.pdf"},{"claims_supported":["Library systems handling patron activity data have ethical and potentially legal privacy obligations.","Access to personal data should be restricted, wider reports anonymized, and collection minimized.","Retention limits, secure destruction, staff training, privacy audits, and compliance with applicable confidentiality law are relevant safeguards."],"publisher":"American Library Association","source_id":"SRC4","source_type":"OFFICIAL_GUIDANCE","title":"Library Privacy Guidelines for Library Websites, OPACs, and Discovery Services","url":"https://www.ala.org/advocacy/privacy/guidelines/OPAC"}],"world_novelty_boundary":"This bounded public-web screen establishes only that the retained sources contain close adjacent practices but no opened source disclosed the full claimed shadow-replay and transition-governance combination. Phrase misses and a four-source screen cannot establish world novelty, patentability, market size, expert acceptance, implementation feasibility, or realized value."}