By: Andrea Vorster
Whether
you were captured by pirates or your dog ate your library book, your moment has
arrived! It’s Library Week (16 March – 23 March) and
we want your best excuses for returning your books late! In return we will
kindly pardon the matter of your late books. It is as simple as that.
Each year, Amnesty
Week has offered staff and students a pride saving opportunity to return
all outstanding Library material fine-free. This year we are celebrating
the Library by offering staff and students a creative solution to the problem of
outstanding Library material by publishing some of the shameful excuses we
suffer!
What is your
best excuse?
The
Fine Art Library in Edinburgh waived a £2700 fine for a book handed in more
than 50 years late. Writer David Black took advantage of a Library Amnesty
period in February this year to hand in a copy of Goya by Dr Xavier de Salas.
The
book was borrowed on 22 September 1962, and was overdue for a total of 18,417
days! His excuse was that it simply slipped his mind to ever hand it back: “I
was only a schoolboy at the time and completely forgot to return it. The book
would pop up every now and again over the years but each time it would slip my
mind to actually do it!”
Interestingly,
David Black’s book is not the most over-due book ever to be returned to a
library. In December 2011 Good Words for
1888 was returned after 123 years after being borrowed from the now non-operational
Troutbeck Institute Library.
The matter of overdue library books has plagued
librarians for centuries! Underneath the Lintel, http://wn.com/Underneath_the_Lintel#/videos a
dramatic play written by Glen Berger (available under the Creative Commons
Attribution-ShareAlike License) features a sole character, the Librarian, who
embarks on a quest to find out who anonymously returned a library book that is
113 years overdue. A clue scribbled in the margin of the book and an unclaimed
dry-cleaning ticket then takes him on a mysterious adventure that spans the
globe and the ages.
We’ve heard some outrageous excuses and while we’re not keen to
track down the not so mysterious trail of your missing books, we thought you
might like to read each other’s classic tales. The top 5 excuses will be published in the next blog post!
How can you
avoid Library fines? The simplest, most appropriate, way is to return your books
on time! In the meantime, post us your excuses for not returning your library books by the
due-date on the Library Blog or visit the UKZN Facebook Page!
