Lancashire library book turns up in North Carolina after 12 years

It’s not often you find you have a library book that’s been overdue for more than a decade – especially when it’s from the other side of the world.

But that’s exactly what happened to one teenager in the USA, who was left dumbfounded after finding a book from Lancashire County Library in her North Carolina home.

“I really have no idea how it got there,” she said. “I thought it was kind of cool and quirky, and thought I’d post about it.

“I didn’t realise how many people from Preston would be into it!”

Nearly 2,000 people have ‘upvoted’ the post on Preston’s subreddit, R/Preston, after the user shared pictures of the book ‘Parisian Chic’.

The book shares personal tips on how to dress like a Parisian from French supermodel Inès de la Fressange, the first woman to sign an exclusive contract with Chanel.

“I don’t know how many people in North Carolina are interested in dressing like they’re in Paris,” said the poster, who asked to keep her details private. “I don’t know about Preston.

“I was actually at my downstairs bookshelf and I was trying to look for the book 1984, by George Orwell, for my summer reading. There’s a bunch of other old books there that don’t really come from anywhere, and I picked up this one and was flipping through it and saw a little label inside that said Lancashire County Libraries.

“I’m just assuming that maybe my mum must have picked it up from a yard sale or something, or maybe the old owners of the house. Honestly, I thought it wasn’t as interesting as it was going to be, but I guess it was.

“I saw people were going down and finding the street that the address was on, and I was like, ‘This is really cool! There are people actually going out there and having this affect their everyday life’!

“I was like, ‘Whoa’. I really liked that.”

Other social media users have tried to pinpoint the address listed on the book, which leads to a building on Bowran Street owned by ULAN (formerly UCLAN).

Rather than being a library of its own, at the time, the building served as a central storage hub for Lancashire’s library books, which would be shipped out upon reservation.

It would also have been home to administrative staff in charge of cataloguing and managing the library service as a whole.

With the nearest library now located at The Harris museum, it would certainly be a long – and expensive – trip if the book were returned from North Carolina after 12 years.

Regardless, the user said she’d be interested in “maybe” taking a visit one day after the reception she’d received. #

“I didn’t expect everyone to be so interested,” she said. “I did some reading about Preston, and it seems like a really cool place to live.

“I went to London a few years ago, and I really love the whole UK culture. I’m always so amazed by the architecture, because everything is so old, and it’s so normal to you.

“It’s all so cool. I’d love to go visit the north and see what that’s like, one day.”

Overdue library books in Lancashire carry a charge of 35p per day, to a maximum charge of £8.25.

But luckily for the poster, who is 16, under-18s are exempt from paying at all.

Further information for anyone in Preston – or elsewhere – with an overdue book is available on the Lancashire County Council website.