Book returned to Indiana library 53 years after it was due back
A book due back to an Indiana library when Lyndon Johnson was president has finally made its way back home.
The novel, Sir Gibbie by George McDonald, was loaned out from the St. Joseph County Public Library in the spring of 1968. The book, which features a rags-to-riches tale, was due back on June 21, 1968.
That date came and went some 53 times before the River Park branch of the library received the book in the mail last week.
According to a story in the South Bend Tribune, the book was returned from the San Bruno Public Library in California, some 2,200 miles from the River Park branch of the library.
Joe Sipocz, River Park’s branch manager, told the Tribune that he received the book in the mail with no note attached.
“The book was stamped inside with the library’s River Park address. The due date card is in the back,” Sipocz said. “There was no withdrawal stamp in the book. It was not in a book sale.”
If a person had to pay the fines from the book for the past 50-plus years, it would cost him or her around $3,000. The library charged 15 cents a day until the 1990s when the fee for overdue books increased to 25 cents a day.
However, the library noted, the fine never exceeds the cost of the book. “Sir Gibbie” would have cost about $5 purchased new.
Sipocz said the book will not be retired and will likely go back on the shelf at the library.
