A SCOTS library was left stunned after finally having an overdue book returned to their shelves – a whopping 47 years late.
Orkney Library in Kirkwall, Orkney had the book – which explains how to build a canoe – returned yesterday morning.
Upon opening the book, staff couldn’t believe what they were seeing with a stamp on the inside revealing a return date of March 1977.
Incredibly, this isn’t even the first time the library has encountered the problem, with two previous instances seeing novels due back in 1974 and 1976 returned almost 50 years late.
The book in question is titled: “Canoe Building in Glass Reinforced Plastic.”
Authored by Alan Byde, the retro cover unsurprisingly features an image of a man in a workshop, working on a blue canoe.
Aside from a cracked spine and some small marks on the cover, it appears to be in relatively good condition.
Further pictures show the library slip inside, which is stamped with the dates it would have been expected back once borrowed.
The most recent stamp shows the book due for return on March 15, 1977.
Orkney Library shared their find to social media yesterday with the caption: “It’s only Monday morning and we’ve already had a book returned that was due back in 1977, how’s your day going?”
The post has since received over 4,000 likes and over 170 comments from amused social media users keen to know the fate of the would-be canoe builder.
One said: “15th of March 1977? So when this book should’ve been back was before the first Star Wars movie was even released.”
Another wrote: “Did they also share pictures of the canoe(s) they built?”
A third said: “Please say they lived on one of the islands and canoed in to return it.”
Another joked: “Bloody awful, thanks for asking.
“I’ve been building a glass reinforced canoe since 1977, I was just about to put the finishing touches to it and someone has stolen the book I was working from.”
A fifth commented: “What’s that late fee looking like?”
The library replied: “Fortunately we don’t charge overdue fines, but even if we did we don’t know who to charge because it’s so long ago we don’t know who borrowed it.
“So we’ll never know if the canoe was ever built…”
The library updated their post today by sharing a previous post about another ridiculously overdue book.
It was shared with the caption: “Thanks for all the interest in our very overdue canoe book. Of course, this was not our first rodeo.”
The tomato growing guidebook, titled “Tomatoes for Everyone”, was returned to the library last October, but was originally due for return in 1974.
Before that, a Hardy Boys novel was also returned to librarians in July 2022, despite being expected back in 1976.
