Libraries have long been the cultural hubs of communities, accomplishing this by fostering literacy, knowledge, and strengthening community connections.
Here at Airdrie Public Library (APL), we strive to be that hub by providing inclusive programming, services and, of course, collections, which are predominantly books. No matter the genre, books offer the reader a journey into their imagination, learning, and other ways of thinking.
However, there is one rarely talked about journey that library books themselves take. When a patron borrows an item and then returns it, the returned item occasionally arrives with a story of its own.
The harrowing ones – books that find their way into bathtubs, or tangles with paper-chewing pets, or young ones playing picture-book frisbee – are the obvious stories, but there are less obvious ones. Sometimes returned books contain forgotten mementos of their time with our patrons.
Bookmarks, playing cards, bits of fabric and string, and even single sheets of bathroom tissue used as place markers occasionally return to the sorting area at APL, where books are checked-in and put back into circulation.
Lost or forgotten items left between the pages of returned library books is not uncommon. On occasion there are even family photographs, necklaces, receipts, postcards, and small denomination bills that have been used to mark a page.
The obviously valuable items are returned to patrons, while the others find a home on a wall in the back room as a humble homage to the books and readers who borrowed them.
Many libraries, such as the New York Public and Oakland Public libraries, have permanent displays of scribbled notes, shopping lists, airplane tickets, ornate metal bookmarks, children’s drawings, love notes, and much more going back decades.
Whether it’s a bookmark or a heart-shaped sticky note, each forgotten item reminds us of the stories contained within libraries and of the lives of those who use them.
For more information on APL’s collection and services visit www.airdriepubliclibrary.ca
