Overdue Book

Long overdue library book returned from Ohio

Blake — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 12:07:05 -0500

A library book checked out from an Oklahoma school library in 1947 has turned up in Ohio and been returned -- with a $250 check to cover overdue fees.

Librarian Betty Niver says the book "New Word Analysis: Or School Etymology of English Derivative Words" was mailed to Holland Hall School in Tulsa by Martha McCabe Jarrett.

Graduates with a degree of anger at bill for overdue library books

Blake — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 13:38:09 -0400

Graduates with a degree of anger at bill for overdue library books: He said many universities would bar students from attending graduations over debts. “We want all students to be able to enjoy their graduation day, and permit students with debts to attend, but withhold their certificates until their debts are paid. Whilst it may be disappointing for a student, they are able to take a full part in their ceremony alongside their peers, in every other way.”

Valley libraries battle delinquent borrowers

Blake — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 07:10:48 -0400

I love a good dramatic headline! Valley libraries battle delinquent borrowers: Mary Jean Moser, supervisor of Circulation Services at Bucknell’s Bertrand Library, said, “The risk we take — that any library takes — is that if someone borrows a book they may not return it. They might move away to Michigan, and then they’ve got the book.”

Woman cuffed, booked for not paying library fines

Blake — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 09:52:33 -0400

A Wisconsin woman has been arrested and booked for failing to pay her library fines.
Twenty-year-old Heidi Dalibor told the News Graphic in Cedarburg that she ignored the library's calls and letters as well as a notice to appear in court.
(Thanks to Gary for the headsup)

Private detectives hunt for late library books

Blake — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 23:17:27 -0400

Private detectives hunt for late library books: Norfolk County Council (That's in England) admitted it had spent £82,358 in the past three years using private detectives.

Much of the money was used to hunt debtors and the council confessed it had used detectives to look online for people who owed them cash but had moved away.

Finn returns library book more than a century late

Blake — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 13:00:52 -0400

Now That's LATE! Finnish library-goer apparently thought 'better late than never' and quietly returned a book on loan for more than 100 years to a library in Vantaa, in southern Finland.

The library had long since lost track of the loan but welcomed back to its collections the bound copy of a 1902 volume of Vartija, an active religious monthly periodical at the time.

A Play on Overdues

Great Western Dragon — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 10:56:42 -0500

A librarian, a book 113 years overdue, and a patron listed only as "A" takes a librarian on a journey around the world and through 2,000 years of time in a new one man play titled Underneath the Lintel.

Overdue book back after 25 years

Blake — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 07:49:30 -0500

We're way overdue for an overdue book story! The BBC Saves The Day! An overdue book borrowed from a Cumbrian library more than a quarter of a century ago has been returned.
The book, Mining in the Lake Counties by WT Shaw, was posted back to Penrith Library anonymously during an amnesty.

It was last borrowed in April 1983 and was one of 400 overdue items returned to libraries throughout the county during the 10-day suspension of fines.

Consumerist.com discusses library late fees

Anonymous Patron — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 09:38:25 -0500

An Overdue Library Book Could Scuttle Your Dreams Of Home Ownership:

Libraries are not stores. Sorry to boil it down to such a simple statement, but libraries are unique institutions (as the idiot who keeps going "What's a library?" seems to think is so funny) that provide a community service. Most library systems require you to provde a couple forms of id to get a card.

Dealing With Overdue Books In the Nation’s Largest Public Library System

birdie — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 09:36:26 -0500

Sewell Chan's NY Times Blog reports on a program at the Queens Borough Library that for the past eleven years has utilized a collection agency and also sometimes refers extreme cases to a credit bureau.

In a related story, one overdue borrower sued the collection agency and won (on something of a technicality).

Readers are invited to reveal their own overdue book stories here.

Should an overdue library book affect your credit rating?