Where are all Birmingham’s overdue library books?

by: Garry Pierrepont (12 January 2016)

Birmingham City Council has admitted that more than 145,000 books are overdue from twenty years of books loans from the city’s libraries. Fines of £422,930 are due on these overdue books, stretching back to 1995, the BBC has reported.

With 1,984,954 books in the city’s library catalogue, the figure of 145,671 overdue books represents over 7% of the total.

As the council has had to cut the number of books being bought for its libraries, this is a very sad situation. Payment of the fines would help to reduce the proposed budget cut of £250,000 from the art and culture budget for 2017-18.

Attempts to retrieve the ten most overdue books − due back in April 1995 − by letter have been met with "not known at this address" returns.

A Birmingham City Council spokeswoman said: "While a very small proportion of books have been overdue for a lengthy period (in the hundreds), the vast majority of the 145,671 will have been overdue for a short period and many may now have been returned. The figure is a snapshot for the number overdue at a specific date."

Where are all the books? Have you got one?

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