From the Associated Press: A book checked out a half-century ago has been anonymously returned to a library in northeastern Pennsylvania, officials said. The Wilkes-Barre Citizens' Voice reports that the 1967 copy of "Coins You Can Collect" by Burton Hobson arrived last month at the Plymouth Public Library in Luzerne County along with a $20 bill. Both letter and book will soon be on display at the library, Keller said. The writer's identity remains a mystery, although she said her family and friends would know the story was about her if it was published in a local newspaper. Article: https://apnews.com/article/bills-f40facf41ee2378e2582d2d3bc0b1180
Probably one of our more mature lady members can enlighten us on the whole story. The little girl had to have grown up to collect coins. LOL
That anonymous book borrower got off easy - a typical overdue book fine is 10 cents a day or $1825.00 for 50 years overdue
I think most libraries (at least the ones where I live) have a policy where the late fee cannot go above the cost of the actual book itself. In essence if someone is too late in returning it the borrow ends up buying it. I actually like that policy. Some countries take it a step further and into banking where the total interest on a loan cannot be more than the amount of the loan itself.
Most if not all the libraries around gave up with late fees or fines. They were spending more money trying to collect than they were taking in. And some people got fairly hostile about it. Bottom line, just wasn't worth it.
Libraries in my area got rid of late fees (except on video games) but if a book or game or movie is overdue by 10 days, they send you an invoice for the replacement cost of the item, and if that's not paid within 30 days they send the debt to a collection agency and charge you a $10 fee for the collection agency process they went through. I guess every places policy is different, but here, all they have done is stop the daily fees racking up, and given a grace period of 10 days after due date to return it, or they bill you for replacement cost and don't want the book back anymore, you bought it. And if you don't pay that within 30 days, then they hit you for another $10, all of this tracked on the library card and they will cancel privileges to check out anything if you owe them more than $20 at one time, but after 30 days they hand the debt to a collection agency and then collection agents start harassing you for the money instead. it's gotten worse as far as I can tell but it puts the irate people in front of collection agencies instead of the Librarian. My really local library has fines still, 25 cents a day for books and CDs, $1.00 a day for games and Movies and such. They also charge a $1 a day if you place a hold on an item that's out and you take longer than 5 days to pick it up after you've been notified it's available. they will keep it on hold for you, but it's racking up $1.00 a day until you get it or cancel the hold. ....And you can pay your fees online, there's a $2.00 transaction fee for each payment. ..Some racket they got going right there. All they've done really is changed how the game works.