find a book stranger at home could mean a moment of good luck for many. But for a woman of Virginia who was trying to do a good deed by returning a copy to the libraryended up being quite a surprise due to the penalty fee that they charged him.
What began as a simple search for a book that it was suitable for a 9-year-old child, ended up being a discovery that has attracted a lot of attention because it discovered a text that should have been returned to the library before October 11, 1933, that is, 90 years ago. This is the story that followed to return the copy.
The book that took 90 years to be returned to the library
Joanie Morgan shared that she went to the library inside his family’s vacation home in Hot Springs, Virginia, looking for a book that he could lend to the grandson of a friend of his. Because the place was full of options, it was not easy for her to choose, when she suddenly felt attracted to a book by Polish-British novelist Joseph Conrad titled “Youth and Two Other Stories.”
According to what he told the media Business Insider, When he took it from the shelf he realized that the legend was stamped on its spine indicating that it belonged to the Larchmont Public Library, in New York, once he opened it he found a paper indicating that the copy had to be returned in October 1933.
The reason why library The reason why the house was so large was because various relatives had taken up the task of collecting specimens, so initially the woman considered that the book had been acquired by his stepfather, who had lived in Larchmont before meeting his mother in 1958.
Then he thought that perhaps the man had taken the title from the library for one of his children that he had had with his first wife and that he had finally forgotten to return when it got mixed up with the collection of books of the vacation home. So she decided to mail the text to the New York Library.
People asked him if he had done the calculations to find out how much he could pay in return. penalty fee, but Joanie claimed she didn’t think about it, she just felt she had to do the right thing. So, she called the Larchmont Public Library and told him to whom he replied that he planned to return a book whose expiration date was 90 years ago.
In accordance with Business Insider, once the library received the copy they were excited about the situation. But they also shared what their policies are regarding the fines due to delay.
As shared by the director of the references section of the libraryLiam Hegarty, the institution imposes a penalty fee 20 cents daily books defeated However, when the copies return in good condition, they do not charge more than US$5, the intention of this, he said, is that they do not want people to be afraid of returning a copy because of having to pay an immense penalty fee. That means that the woman who decided to return the book “Youth and Two Other Stories” would not have to worry about paying US$6,400 that would correspond to the delay time.
In the end the story was not only curious but, according to the library, has encouraged other people to return the books that they had been saving. As an example, they mentioned the return of an expired copy in 1969 that included a check for the maximum fine of US$5 and a donation to friends of the Larchmont Library.
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