A book about loss set in Tokyo in the late 1960s, was returned to the Fish Hoek Library six years later during the City of Cape Town’s recent Fine Free Week.
Fine Free Week is an amnesty period where patrons can
return overdue items without paying a fine. According to the City, its third
Fine Free Week for 2025, saw 9 105 items returned to the value of R1.14 million.
During the previous two amnesty periods, more than R1,3 million worth of
library items were returned.
‘’These opportunities to return overdue items without a
fine continue to be popular and we are grateful to everyone who brought back
their items. I want to encourage patrons to return items on time, so we can all
share in the adventures and magic,’’ said Francine Higham, Mayoral Committee
Member for Community Services and Health.
The most overdue item, Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami,
had been taken out on 3 October 2019 from the Fishhoek Library. Higham says the
library is also fourth on the list of those that had the most outstanding items
returned. On top of the list is Durbanville librarty
with 568 overdue item returns, followed by Somerset with 567, Meadowridge with 423,
Fishhoek with 395, and 368 library items were returned to Bellville library.
PICTURE: Bookish‘’We need items to be returned timeously, so everyone can
have access to them. Prompt returns also support the library's function as a
community resource for reading, learning, and exam preparation,’’ said Higham.
‘’Individual libraries are responsible for their selections
and the focus is on children and teen materials that reflect the diversity of
the city as well as the latest and best in publications. Selections also serve
to support departmental projects such as the 1 000 Stories Before School,
coding and chess Clubs, among others. Allocation of these materials is based on
the needs expressed by librarians as well as knowledge of their collections,
the gaps within the collections and the need to enhance collections,’’ she
added.
Done By: Mitchum George
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