It's What Is On the Inside That Counts

So, in keeping in the theme of my last post, I thought I would revisit the fun aspect of our collection of donated books. Yes, there a lot of frustrations when it comes to having a collection made up entirely of donations, including the sustainability aspect.

But there are also some fun surprises. Namely, what we sometimes find inside. I find endless amusement from inscriptions, old 'bookmarks', and other random things we find inside these old books as we catalog them. They tell such interesting stories about their previous owners and lives. Before I went to library school I worked as the Acquisitions Coordinator at a college library in Chicago. I loved that job because I got to open up boxes of brand new books almost every day. But I've found that opening old books every day can be just as interesting and fun.

This week's examples:

Found in an old book...I love the record of
a previous library's policies!

This was found in the very back of a book. If you stole
a book would you document where you got it?

Not sure what vegetarians have to do with joy...I looked
through the entire book but found no other notes about
joy or vegetarians.