or, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Fear and Loathing at a Public Library Reference Desk



Found Bookmarks

   June 19th, 2008

found.jpgThis is worth repeating: Kate over on Adventures in Library Land highlighted an AbeBooks article that listed a few examples of things that were found in used books:

  • Forty $1,000 bills
  • Piece of bacon
  • Credit cards
  • Valuable baseball cards
  • A diamond ring

I'm sure most libraries have a collection of odd things, too - just this week I found a Pokémon card (in a book about dealing with bullying). I tend to use receipts myself, or whatever random scrap of paper is handy at the time. Perhaps there should be a Where's George?-like program for bookmarks, too.




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5 Responses to “Found Bookmarks”

  1. Stephanie Willen Brown Says:

    I wish there were a lost-n-found for important bookmarks left in books & returned to the library. My dad once wrote on a bookmark from his local bookstore & gave the book to me with the bookmark tucked inside. His note was pretty generic: “happy birthday, love dad” or some such, but it was very meaningful to me.

    I was very happy to rediscover the bookmark after his death, and I used it for several months. Then I left it in a library book I returned. It’s gone into the Found Bookmarks pile, never to be seen again, and with no value to anyone else (unlike those $1,000 bills!).

    I’d love to see a Where’s The Bookmark program. 🙂

  2. Maria Says:

    Just wanted you to know how much I enjoy your blog! Always something either interesting, useful or laugh out loud funny. Thanks…

  3. Kate Says:

    Thanks for the link. 🙂

    With you being a public librarian and all, I would have expected you to have found, or at least heard of, far more interesting bookmarks than a Pokémon card.

    I am pretty sure I found money once when I worked at a public library – but only maybe $3. And pictures, and bills, and receipts, and the other usual things.

    I am currently using a bookmark from the University of Castilla-La Mancha in Spain. Several were left in books donated to the academic library at which I previously worked.

  4. Jill Says:

    I once found a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in a returned book. It wasn’t messy as it sounds and appeared to be truly misplaced and not done as a prank.

  5. Brian Herzog Says:

    The sandwich might top all – how could they not notice it was in there when they dropped it off? Wow. Since I work in reference and not at the circ desk, I don’t get first crack and finding things in books. I know our circ desk does have a bin for recycling found bookmarks, and also a folder of photographs (in case library staff recognizes someone to return it). Most of the rest gets thrown away, sadly – a display of found items would be a lot of fun.

    Oh, and since posting this, I found a report card from January 2008 in a book. Yay.