A Northern California man returned a book to his local library earlier this month. It was surprisingly 96 years after the original due date.
The History of the United States by Benson Rossing was checked out in 1927 and although it was not in perfect condition, the St. I received it without burdening the man with the amount of money. with late fees.
“We probably won’t be able to restore it. “It’s pretty delicate. The pages are browned and some of the pages and edges are wrinkled. It’s on display for now, but it will probably stay there.”
Cryden said the book belonged to Jim Perry, a local man who returned the book he found while searching for a box. Cryden said the book was previously owned by Perry’s late wife.
The curator of the St. Helena Public Library said the eventually returned books will be on display in the library for the time being.
(Provided by St. Helena Public Library)
Clyden said Perry believed the book was taken from the library in 1927 by his wife’s grandfather, who then passed it on.
At the time, it cost 25 cents a month to remove a book from the St. Helena Library, but the institution has since waived the checkout fee. Luckily for Perry, the St. Helena Public Library also adopted a policy where he waived all late fees in 2019.
The inside of the book says it can be kept for 2 weeks, after which it will be fined 5 cents per day. In other words, if the library had collected according to rules from 1927, Perry would have owed more than $1,700.
“He was successfully exempted in 2019, but before that the maximum fine per item was $10. So he would have been fine,” Clyden said.
