Oh George- Return Your Library Books

I've been more than a little guilty of keeping library books out entirely too long. I lost one once- in the back of a taxi, and it was returned to the library nearly a year later. I had already paid for the book in full, but liked to think of it being passed hand to hand, taxi ride to taxi ride across Atlanta.

I digress...

There was an interesting little snippet in the news today about our first President and his overdue library books. Apparently, in going through his papers a historian found two books and a chit for their return date from the New York Society Library. If Mr. Washington was around today to sheepishly return them to the library he would owe about $4,500. Not too bad considering they're over 220 years overdue. I can't imagine what kind of penalties the IRS would slap on you if you were that late paying back taxes.

The New York library, a subscription library that was New York's first library open to the public, has known about the missing books since the 1930s. The matter came up again recently because the library is capturing the ledgers in digital form to preserve the records.

Library officials cross-checked the books mentioned in the ledger with the ones in their collection. "Volume 12 (of "Common Debates") was still missing," as was the other book, Goldstein said. The library is not so concerned about the fine as it is about each book.