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A Bob Dylan Record Was Just Returned To A Library Nearly 50 Years Late

Typically, when you check a book or another piece of media out of a library, you’re supposed to return the item relatively soon. That’s how it goes most of the time. Then, there’s Howard Simon. He recently returned a vinyl copy of Bob Dylan’s Self Portrait to the University Heights branch of Cleveland’s Heights Libraries, which is all good and well. The problem, though, is that he originally checked the album out in June 1973, which was 48 years ago.

The library shared a post about the situation, with Sara Philips, manager of the University Heights branch of Heights Libraries, saying, “I got a package in the mail from San Francisco that was record-shaped and — lo and behold! — it contained a record from our collection that was due back in June 1973!”

They also included an excerpt of a letter Simon wrote the library, which reads in part, “As a recent retiree, I am taking the opportunity to turn my attention to some of the many vignettes of life that by dint of career and family have been neglected these many years. In that context, I am returning with this letter an overdue item (by my count, approximately 17,480 days overdue as of this writing)… it’s quite late, and I’m quite sorry!”

The library doesn’t charge late fees, but if they charged 17 cents per day the record was late (the average late fee for books in 2019, according to the Wall Street Journal), Simon would owe the library $2,971.60.