Stop Book Abuse!

What I love about library books is that they're everybody's books.  You can check them out, I can check them out, he can check them out, she can check them out, etc.  Damaging a library book is like damaging your own personal property, so why do people do it?

Recently, a test prep book was returned to the library with all the answers marked in it.  In addition to seeing the answers the patron selected, I also saw which answers the patron got wrong because there were lines through the numbers with mistakes.  Allow me to say that your neighborhood perch librarian was none too thrilled erasing page after page of pencil marks in that book.

You'd be surprised by the condition in which a number of books and other library items get returned to us.  They've had marks made by various writing utensils, Post-its stuck to pages, water damage, coffee stains, and brown sticky stuff I don't even want to know about.  The library has become ick and germ central, but there's something we can all do to help.

When you check any item out of the library, treat it with respect.  Don't write anywhere in or on it.  Don't rest your drink on it.  Don't take it with you into the bathtub, the pool, the lake, the ocean, or anywhere else that's wet.  For the time it's checked out to you, that library item is yours--take good care of it.

Sending you good karma from the perch.