A COVID-era regulation just helped one lucky reader avoid 50+ years of library late fees.
A hardcover copy of George Orwell’s Road to Wigan Pier was checked back into the Hull Central Library in the United Kingdom recently. This normally wouldn’t make headlines—the author is much better known for his works of fiction.
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However, what’s notable about this book is that it was originally checked out in 1974.
The largest paid library fee on record is $345.14
Fifty years later, the book is back in the library’s possession. But it has seen better days.
The library’s event manager, Katie Holdstock, told the BBC that the book will not be reshelved, due to wear and tear—and a notable smell.
“That musty odor is just what you get in our library stacks – where we keep old books that aren’t on our public shelves, in case anyone requests one!” Holdstock shared.
However, the reader who kept the book for half a century won’t be penalized. Hull Central is one of many libraries that waived late fees during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We waived library fines in the pandemic and never brought them back in again,” Holdstock noted. “We want there to be as few barriers as possible to customers using our libraries.”
Published in 1937, The Road to Wigan Pier was Orwell’s second book of nonfiction. It’s a two-part sociological commentary. The first half looks at the big picture, examining England’s working class prior to World War One. The second zooms in to explore Orwell’s own upbringing and how his social and political beliefs formed over time.
Many libraries chose to waive late fees during the COVID-19 pandemic
Shockingly, the book is far from the longest library rental on record. In 2023, a woman contacted the Larchmont Public Library in Westchester County, New York, after finding a copy of Joseph Conrad’s Youth and Two Other Stories among her late stepfather’s belongings. It had been due back in 1933.
Thankfully, that library had a mercy rule for late fees, with the maximum being only $5. Emily Canellos-Simms wasn’t so lucky.
The Illinois woman currently holds the Guinness World Record for the largest library fine ever paid, at $345.14.
Canellos-Simms found the children’s poetry book Days and Deeds among her mother’s belongings in 2003. It was checked out from the Kewanee Public Library in 1955, and accruing a late fee at a rate of two cents per day.
