Overdue library books by 20 months!

[Mummynextdoor]

So background to this is that two significant things happened around October 2021 that are relevant to this. The first is that I was completely blocked from an older email account account in my maiden name.

The second thing is that we had a major leak in our loft that caused a lot of damage to my DCs bedroom ceilings and walls.

As a result we had to box up their rooms and everything in them in a hurry. We ended up taking the boxes to parents in laws house and storing in their loft/garage. (Ended up living with them for a while too whilst it was fixed).

When everything was fixed we brought everything back - or so we thought.

It turns out that one box got left behind in the loft and we didn't realise. Parents in law are moving house and clearing out their house. They brought the forgotten box around today and this box contains amongst, other things, 8 library books that my children had borrowed from the library in September 2021!

I didn't receive any reminders as I must have registered with my old email address that I lost access to

Aside from the fact this means we haven't tried to borrow any books since 2021 as it would have been flagged - I blame it on getting kindles - it means I will have to go the library and return the books after 20 months.

They don't fine under 18s and I can't work out what happens for non returned books - they could have sent invoices to my defunct email address for replacement ones.

Im so embarrassed! Not sure why I'm posting - just need to confess my sins I suppose

My library stopped fining during Covid times and never restarted. Hopefully yours in similar.

Mine fines late books , but only up the the value of the book . They also post letters .

Take them out of hours and post them in the returns box so you don't have to see anyone!

Our libary charges ten pence per book per day. I don't know if they have an upper limit 🤔

Don’t be embarrassed, the staff won’t think anything of it, honestly. It depends on the local authority what charges (if any) will be on your records but you don’t have to pay them unless you want to use your library accounts again.

Ours don’t fine but if you don’t return a book or it gets damaged they charge the cost of a book.

Don't be embarrassed, it sounds like a very stressful time. I expect they will just be happy to have the books back and not have to buy new copies. Just apologise lots. If the fine is steep they might reduce it or let you pay instalments.

Just take them back and talk to the librarians. They may well waive your fines after all this time.

They may not charge you. Hopefully will just be glad to have the books back.

Years ago my mum kept books for a few years and the fine was £16.

If they're on a child's card there won't be fines anyway.

If you can't face speaking to the librarians go to a library with a night returns box (probably old ones in a town/city) or one that's in your county but not your local one so you don't ever have to see the old dear dragon again.

You'll need to reactivate your card (and return the books!) if you want to borrow any more books but it happens all the time.

Our local libraries charge 50p per week, capped at £4. I just googled it, as I had books borrowed in 2019 which I didn’t return until 2022 and was sure I paid £12.

Aberdeen City Council are not known for their generosity or lenience so imagine this is pretty normal across the UK! Anything over the value of the book would surprise me.

A family member got rude notes from the library once about a book they swore blind they had returned, so they went in and told the librarian that they must have made a mistake and how dare they accuse them of not returning it. The librarian waved the fine and apologised for the mistake.

A few years later my family member found it when they were redecorating. They snuck it back onto the library shelf and never mentioned it.

This family member is a person of the cloth!

There's nothing to be embarrassed about, just drop them off in the returns box or on the returns shelf. If you need to ever take books out again then just explain to the librarian - covid, teenagers - better to return than ignore it. I doubt librarian will bat an eyelid, might laugh at the length of time!

Oh don't be embarrassed! I've got a library book that I've just discovered whilst sorting out my books, that's about 10 years overdue! I can only think I forgot to return it due to many moves, divorce and just about every calamity that could happen to me. How it survived the Great Book Burning my ex did I don't know! The evil bastard promised to store my hefty collection whilst I moved into a new house, and then burnt a majority of them.

Librarian here - don’t be embarrassed, happens all the time and we wouldn’t think twice about it. Our authority doesn’t charge fines on children’s tickets (or adult ones since covid) trust me they’ll just be happy to have their books back and then you’ll be able to start using the library again which is what we want xx

Just take them in! I've never kept books this long but have definitely had some very late ones. Ours fines you up to a certain point and then it stops, I think after a while it gets logged as lost.