Image: Sutherland Shire Council.
When Jerry Seinfeld received a library fine for an overdue book from 1971, his in-show character would never have fathomed that his record would be broken in the Sutherland Shire.
That’s what happened when librarians were processing books returns at Caringbah Library when they discovered that one book was 14,934 days, or 40 years, 10 months, 19 days overdue.
According to Sutherland Shire Council, the book titled Apple to the Core: The Unmaking of the Beatles, was originally due back to the library on 16 November 1975.
No doubt if this was the City of New York, the “case” would have been turned over to the library investigations officer. Alright, we’re running that joke into the ground.
Sutherland Shire Mayor Carmelo Pesce said it “was such a surprise”.
“The gentleman who returned the book found it at a garage sale and when he realised it was from the library, he returned it to us,” Mr Pesce said.
“It’s definitely the longest overdue book that we’ve ever come across, but great to see that it eventually made its way back to where it belongs,” he said.
The council provided some information about what normally happens in these overdue library book cases.
In the municipality, libraries have a 21 day loan period, and an email is sent just prior to the due date as a courtesy reminder.
Here’s the kicker – had overdue fees not been capped on this book and the loan not deleted from the system, it would have accrued a fine of $7,467.50.
Significantly more than the original purchase price of $3.82.
If councils chased up all of these overdue library books from decades ago, you might say it’d make for a potentially effective revenue stream, but the cost of implementing resources to make it happen would probably far outweigh the return on investment.
As for the Sutherland Shire, it’s announced that its libraries have begun sending overdue notices to library borrowers via email rather than post.
The council reckons these overdue notices will be received as quickly as possible.
“The new system will help minimise overdue fees for customers and get books and other library items back into circulation more quickly so other library members can access them,” the Mayor said.
