Amnesty Yields 5,326 Items; Fine with
Us, Says San Francisco PL
The San Francisco Public Library’s two-week amnesty on overdue materials in June brought in more than 5,000 items, including two folders of sheet music checked out by an opera singer in 1962 and a book of poems that had been out for seven decades. All were welcomed with open arms.
“This is a resource that belongs to the people,” said librarian Dennis Maness, cradling the slim brown volume Vale and Other Poems by George Russell, which had been checked out in 1931. The collection was returned by Vincent Enea, a 78-year-old retiree who suspected it was his aunt or uncle who borrowed it.
Also among the 5,326 overdue items returned was the music, checked out by singer Charles Hilder in 1962. Hilder’s widow, Allie Light, said she came across the music in a cardboard box that has sat untouched her basement since shortly after her husband died 36 years ago.
The library received 4,000 more overdue items during the amnesty than during a normal two-week period. The retrieved material was worth $100,000, librarians told the July 4 San Francisco Chronicle.
Posted July 9, 2001.
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