Day, the Twentieth

Take Choice of All My Library

A few days ago, we spent some time at the library curating our Carrie McDuffee Memorial Collection. Carrie, a popular teacher and dedicated library patron, passed away in 1906. For the next twenty years or so her family donated children’s books to the library in Carrie’s name.

And so, a hundred years later, we’ve finally taken up the task of looking over the collection, removing same damaged volumes and adding some that have been stored away for decades.

It’s exciting work and a project where we intend to move the collection to a more prominent location in the library. We want to tell Carrie’s story and let patrons – especially children - actually handle and page through the books.

I despise books as wallpaper. It’s a library. If books are going to be there, then people should have access to them. Always.

Anyway, that’s a long lead in to the real reason behind this note. In a few of the books, we found an original Library Rules and Regulations Bookplate, dating back to the Griffin Free Public Library’s founding in 1892. It’s a thing to behold! Have a read.

In some cases, not much has changed. A patron can still take an item out for two weeks at a time. They are still expected to pay if they damage or lose a book. And you can take out a book if you don’t live in Auburn, but you have to fill out a form and pay a subscription fee.

The things that have changed are big, though! Late fees are two cents a day! That’s a huge penalty for 1892, no doubt meant to be extra discouraging when it came to tardiness. Our library completely eliminated late fees years ago.

The one that is a real eye opener is that patrons were only allowed one book at a time. I’m sure that back then, books were valuable and the library didn’t have a large collection, but still. Today, when someone asks us how many books they can take out, our response is “as many as you can carry.” I’ve checked out families taking 20-30 books out at a time with their kids. The more the better!

Anyway, just a little interesting tidbit for you all today. Let me know where you live and which library you use.