- We’ve all returned a late library book or two.
A late library book is basically a requirement of having a library card. (Or maybe it’s not..and it’s just me?)
It all happened back on February 14, 1904, when someone checked out James Clerk Maxwell’s “An Elementary Treatise on Electricity” from the New Bedford Free Library.
Of course. Who wouldn’t be interested to find out more about the emerging possibilities of a key force of nature?
It only took 119 years for this late library book and a detailed librarian from West Virginia before this scientific text made its way back into the Massachusetts library. The discovery was made by Stewart Plein.
The curator of rare books in the West Virginia University Libraries found it while sorting through a stack of recently donated books. Plein came across the treatise and noticed that it hadn’t been stamped “Withdrawn,” even though it had been a part of the collection at the New Bedford library.
His showed that although the book was extremely overdue, it had not been discarded. Plein called the special collections librarian of New Bedford, Jodi Goodman, to tell her of the find.
“This came back in extremely good condition,” Olivia Melo, New Bedford Public Library said. “Someone obviously kept this on a nice bookshelf because it was in such good shape and probably got passed down in the family.”
Two years after Maxwell’s death in 1879, the book was published as of 1881.
However, the cranberry-colored copy, now back at the New Bedford library is not considered a rare addition of work, according to Melo. But it is a late library book.
The library sometimes received overdue books around 10-15 years overdue. But nothing anywhere close to a century or more.
For the rest of this story, follow the link to read Late Library Book Turned in 119 Years Later: Part Two.
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