March 21, 2013

The True (and very Parenthetical) Confession of an Accidental Book Thief

Yesterday Eleanor and I went to the library for story time. While I was there, I picked up my holds (which included Call the Midwife: Season One and The House at Riverton on audio!) Hooray for reserve list patience finally paying off; although I'm STILL waiting for Scarlet. (It's taken six weeks to go from 14th to 3rd on that list. Sigh, slow YA readers kill me.)

Anyway, I checked out those two items, and then noticed my account said I had five holds ready for pickup. I double-checked with the library volunteer stocking the hold shelves, and sure enough, in the stack of stuff she was about to put out, were two graphic novels for Noel. (He just recently discovered the ability to request things at the library... and all of the sudden half my library requests are his. I might need to make get him his own library card soon at this rate!)

But see, the math still didn't add up. My two + his two, where was the fifth item? So the library volunteer and I looked at my account, and determined that it was another graphic novel. She checked the shelves, and went and checked the back, no luck. She sent me over to the desk to talk to a librarian, who re-checked both of those, and then went and checked the stacks to see if it had somehow been reshelved.

Alas, further hunting did not bring the book to light. The librarian was distressed to discover that it was the only one in the system, since the other copy was marked missing, and so she couldn't reserve it for me. (Apparently graphic novels get stolen pretty often.)

We agreed it was sad, but I said not to worry about an inter-library loan, Noel would be able to find something else to read.

Then I got home... and looked at Noel's nightstand.



So apparently I accidentally walked out without checking it out last time. (Oops). (But also, what is the point of the big electronic thing you walk through? Isn't it supposed to set off an alarm or something?)

And then, since it wasn't sitting on the shelf for them to pull back to stock, it stayed on hold for me for more than a week. And since I'm not a graphic novel reader, I didn't even notice that it was the same title that'd been sitting around at home. Now I have to go back and admit my mistake. (Sigh, so embarrassing).

Maybe I'll make Noel take it back in...

How about you? 
Ever 'stolen' a book from the library?

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