The librarians of Twitter have spoken. They are sick and tired of their patrons using perishables and other oddities as bookmarks. Everything from Kraft American cheese singles to circular saw blades have been found in library books and they’ve had enough. Author and librarian Anna Holmes took to Twitter earlier this month.
Dearest patrons, PLEASE stop using cheese as a bookmark. Please. We give away actual bookmarks for free. Or like use a receipt or something. Just not perishables. #librarylife
— Anna Holmes (@annaholmeswrit1) May 1, 2018
Not reported in the tweet, but the branch has received three returned books with the same slices of cheese.
Librarians from around the world responded to Holmes’s tweet with their own records of returned objects. Everything from banana skins, florets of broccoli, and a nibbled fried chicken leg have been returned to branches all around the world.
I thought I had seen it all when I thought I had seen it all when a patron left a broccoli floret in book at my old job.
— Dee Roman (@DeeRomanEmpress) May 1, 2018
I have experienced the gnawed fried-chickenleg bookmark and never want to again.
— John McGraw (@mcgrawfeathers) May 3, 2018
Image Via Conserve This
Twitter isn’t the only place where you can find records of forgotten objects in books. Forgotten Bookmarks, a website run by bookseller Michael Popek, documents all of the objects forgotten in books. He’s found everything from screws to cheese soufflé recipes.
Image Via Forgotten Bookmarks
Image Via Forgotten Bookmarks
Featured Image Via NLB