From Love Notes to Sausage Slices
I don’t know if this technically counts as news, but the Washington Post profiled an exhibit at the Vienna Central Library in Austria, where library staff have spent over 20 years collecting the items that patrons have left behind in library books. Photos, prescriptions, receipts, and even a package of birth control pills have been used as bookmarks. In case you’re curious, the article says that the person who left behind a piece of sausage in a library book was promptly fined.
When Banned Books Week Is Banned
What happens when a library bans Banned Books Week? Well, if you’re Sierra Benjamin, a longtime staff member at the Flathead County Library (MT), you sit outside the library on your days off with a stack of banned books and a sign that says “Banned Books Week is BANNED in your public library!” The library director, Teri Dugan, said that Sierra is allowed to do what she likes in her free time, and that because the library has a number of materials that patrons can check out at any point, they “‘didn’t see a need to necessarily highlight [Banned Books Week].’” Well, maybe they should, because Flathead County has had a few issues with banned and challenged books over the last few years.