When you borrow a library book, you usually have a few weeks to bring it back. If you are late, many libraries charge a fine, a small amount of money for each extra day. This year, some libraries received items that were more than 100 years overdue.
In September, John Hanson walked into the Concord Public Library in New Hampshire, a state in the northeastern United States. He told the staff that he had something to return, and that it was probably the oldest thing the library had ever got back. It was the September 1894 issue of The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine. It was 132 years late, or 48,220 days.
Hanson said the magazine had been on his bookshelf for decades, and he had no idea where he got it. He decided to return it after he saw a newspaper story about a new rule at the library: for one year, it would not charge any late fines. That was lucky for him. At 25 cents a day, his fine would have been 12,055 U.S. dollars (about 17,000 Canadian dollars).
Jennifer Needham, the library’s archivist, looks after its old records. She expected something from the 1980s or 1990s. Instead, she held a hardcover magazine with more than 200 pages of stories, poems, pictures, and old advertisements for chewing gum and bathtubs. A child had probably drawn on it with crayons, and a picture of Abraham Lincoln had been cut out. Needham called it “a pleasant surprise.” The library plans to show the magazine to visitors.
An even older book went home in July to Kiama, a town south of Sydney, Australia. Ross Simmons was repairing his house when he found an old tea box inside a fireplace that someone had closed up with bricks. In the box was Antiquities of Athens, a book from 1858. It belonged to the Kiama Library, which opened in 1872, and it had been missing for about 150 years. The house once belonged to Simmons’s great-great-grandfather, but the library’s records do not show who borrowed the book last.
“We’ve never had anything that old come back to us,” said library manager Michelle Hudson. She worked out that, with prices rising over the years, the fine would now be about 28,000 Australian dollars (about 28,000 Canadian dollars). The book will stay in the library’s local history collection, and no one will borrow it again.
In Ireland, libraries no longer charge late fines at all. In County Mayo, in the west of Ireland, the local library service recently got back two very late books. One was 71 years overdue, and the other was 105 years overdue.
Sources: NPR, Concord Monitor, The Associated Press, Western People
Library fines are usually a matter of cents. This year, a few libraries found themselves calculating sums in the thousands, after items borrowed in the 19th century finally came home.
In September, John Hanson of Barrington, New Hampshire, walked up to the circulation desk at the Concord Public Library and said he had something to return that was “the oldest thing you may have ever received back to the library.” It was the September 1894 issue of The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, a bound volume with a marbled cover that still carried the library’s markings. By the library’s count, it was 48,220 days overdue.
Hanson said the magazine had sat on his shelves for decades, first in Boscawen and later in Barrington, and he could not remember how he came to own it. What finally prompted him to bring it back was a newspaper article he spotted at the grocery store. The library had just announced a one-year freeze on late fines, hoping to coax missing items back onto its shelves. His timing was fortunate. At 25 cents a day, he would have owed US12,055(C17,200).
Jennifer Needham, the library’s archivist, admitted she had been expecting something far more recent. “I was like, ‘Oh, it’s going to be from like the 80s or 90s.’ And he pulls it out, and I’m like, ‘No!’” she said. The magazine holds more than 200 pages of essays, poems, and illustrations, along with advertisements for tobacco, chewing gum, and bathtubs. A printed note says it “may be kept for one week.” Crayon marks suggest a young reader once got hold of it, and a portrait of Abraham Lincoln is the only illustration that has been cut out. The library plans to display it in its archive room, where, Needham said, it will show “what people were reading at the time.”
Half a world away, the Kiama Library in New South Wales, south of Sydney, has an even older tale. During renovations in July, Ross Simmons opened a fireplace that had been sealed with bricks and found a tea crate inside. In it was Antiquities of Athens, an 1858 volume listed as No. 506 in the library’s original collection. The library opened in 1872 and recorded the book as missing within a few years. The house once belonged to Simmons’s great-great-grandfather, John Simmons, who lived there around the time it vanished, but nothing confirms he was the borrower. “Unfortunately, we have a missing link,” said library manager Michelle Hudson. “There’s nothing in the book that tells us who the last borrower was.”
Hudson, who said the library had “never had anything that old come back,” used the fee printed inside the cover, three pence a week, to estimate the fine. Allowing for inflation, it comes to around A28,000(C27,800). The book will now stay in the local history collection, permanently out of circulation.
In Ireland, where public libraries have scrapped late fines altogether, the library service in County Mayo, in the west of the country, recently received two more latecomers. One was 71 years overdue, and the other was 105.
Sources: NPR, Concord Monitor, The Associated Press, Western People
