How long can a book borrowed from a library stay in the company of the borrower before it is returned? If you say a year or two, you may not be wrong. But if the recent happening in the United States, US is anything to go by, then, there may necessarily not be a time limit to the number of years a book could stay out of the library before it could retrace its way back.
Recently, a library book borrowed by George Washington, first US President, was returned to a New York City’s oldest library, 221 years after it was borrowed. As was discovered, Washington checked out the book from the New York Society Library at a time when the library shared a building with the federal government in lower Manhattan. The library said in a statement that its borrowing records showed that Washington took out the book which its title was Law of Nations and authored by Emer de Vattel on October 5, 1789. No mention was made of the book as the former President did not return it.
However, the missing book came to light when the New York Society Library was restoring its 1789 to 1792 charging ledger, which featured the borrowing history of some prominent Americans such as Washington, John Adams, John Jay, Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton and George Clinton. After the inventory was concluded, the library confirmed that the book checked out by Washington was still missing.
But the library did not publicise its findings until recently when in an article in The New York Daily News, it said, “A few days after learning of the situation, staff at Washington’s home in Virginia, Mount Vernon, offered to replace Vattel’s Law of Nations” with another copy of the same edition.” As the volume was presented on May 19, the library hosted a ceremony to mark the occasion.
Now, the overdue fee has been calculated at about $300,000.
By JULIANA EZEOKE