FRESNO, Calif. – Many people are probably familiar with the feeling of returning a book to the library a few days or a few weeks late.
The Betty Rodriguez Library in Fresno recently got an even more surprising late return – a copy of the book “Mother” by Kathleen Norris that was nearly 83 years overdue.
A note in the package where the book came noted that the person who checked out the book was a 13-year-old girl at the time and had recently passed away. The book appears to have last been checked out in December 1940 before returning to the Fresno County Public Library late last month.
The book is about a young woman searching for her independence, has a change of heart, and then returns home.
Susan Renfro, spokeswoman for the Fresno County Library, sees similarities with the way the book made its eventual return to the place it came from.
“The story of this book being returned to us has so many characteristics that are similar to the actual book itself which makes the story even more heartwarming,” Renfro said.
The person who made the return asked the fees for the late return be waived. It was their mother and she and recently passed away.
The sender estimated the late fee was around $1,500.
Renfro, however, says after all this time, things have changed – including how the library addresses late fees. She says late fees are capped at $4.00. And, in this case, no fees would be applied.
Library staff were just happy – and surprised – to have the book returned.
“Everybody’s pretty sure that this is the longest a book has ever gone, being checked out and being returned to us,” Renfro said.
Renfro said now that the book is back, there are no plans to make it available for checkout. Instead, library staff plan to put up a display for the book to have people see the book and the note which came with it.
There are also plans to try reaching the person who made the delivery and learn more about their mother. Renfro said nobody should ever feel bad about making a late return.
She says library staff never want to make anyone feel like they can’t visit their library.
“Of course we would love for people to return them and get them back, but we also understand that things happen. Books get lost, sometimes you move and it’s not in the box that it you thought that it was,” Renfro said, adding if anything like that ever happens, “you could just come in to your local branch, talk to us, let us know what happened and we are very lenient.”
