An overdue library book has been returned almost 37 years late by the original borrower with a funny note inside, giving library staff a dose of confusion and humor all in one.
“Psychedelics” by Bernard Aaronson and Humphry Osmond, published in 1970, was anonymously returned to Riverside Library and Cultural Center in Weld County, Colorado, on March 13 via drop box. It fell into the hands of the library’s materials supervisor, who was “a little confused” to discover the book was 36 years, 9 months, and 13 days overdue.
“It had a stamp on it that said Weld County Library, and we haven’t been called that since before 1985,” said James Melena, community relations and marketing manager for High Plains Library District, speaking to The Epoch Times.
A Post-it note inside the book read, “Sorry so late! It’s been a long, strange trip,” beside a drawing of a smiley face.
While Mr. Melena suspected that the borrower “got as much of a kick out of it as we did.”
The day after posting on Facebook, the story had gone international. None of the library staff expected their funny find to reach viral status, but even staff who had worked for the district for decades could not recall an overdue book ever being returned so late. The most overdue book on their current system dates only to 2017.
“We went from analog to digital, we lost a lot of inactive accounts, and every 10 years we purge inactive accounts, so we really don’t have good record keeping for what the most overdue book could be,” Mr. Melena told The Epoch Times. “But, this one certainly beat every single other one!”
There’s no way of knowing the identity of the borrower, he explained, since the book was last checked out in 1987 when the library was using a card catalog that has since been abandoned.
The fact of the book’s return means the library would not have collected a late fee. Nonetheless, Mr. Melena calculated that, at 10 cents per day, the book would have incurred “comfortably over $1,300 at this point.”
The book’s return has been a learning moment, too. Mr. Melena believes there’s an interesting comparison to be made between ‘70s culture and modern culture based on its classification as a “young adult” book.
“If you actually open up this book and read a little bit, even for a minute or two, you‘ll realize that it’s college-level psychology,” he said. “When we think of young adults nowadays, we think of books like ’The Hunger Games,‘ so it really might be just showing a sign of the times that the term ’young adult' meant a lot more, or meant something very different, back then.”
Mr. Medena also has a theory as to why the overdue book and its funny note of apology appeals to so many netizens.
“I think a lot of them can really relate to overdue library books. ... they might feel a little better about themselves!” he said.
