Tuesday, June 06, 2023

Even a book needs a vacation sometimes.

As Wisconsin residents schedule summer trips to the northwoods, one such book chartered a much longer journey.

“Paradise Lost” in Australia? It’s been found … in Fond du Lac. 

“We don’t know how it got here,” said Jon Mark Bolthouse, director of the Fond du Lac Public Library. “But we got quite the surprise when it turned up in our book drop last week.”

Fond du Lac Public Library staff regularly receive books from other libraries mixed in with regular returns. Usually these books come from nearby libraries in the Winnefox system and are easily returned.

This time, though, staff opened the book to find a label marked “Richmond-Upper Clarence Regional Library.” A quick Google search revealed this to be a library located in Casino, New South Wales, Australia, just a couple of hours south of the cities of Brisbane and Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia.

It arrived in the library’s book drop sometime over the Memorial Day weekend while the library was closed.

When a book arrives at the Fond du Lac Public Library from outside the Winnefox system, library staff reach out to the other library to discuss the best way to return the item, which is exactly what they did last week with “Paradise Lost.”

Staff in Casino, New South Wales, Australia, were equally surprised to learn of the vacation “Paradise Lost” had taken.

“We have a pop-up library at our local train station (some of our preloved books that are ready for a new home go here), and while books happily disappear from there, this is the first time any of the staff have heard about any of their destinations,” said Amy Boyd, who is in charge of collection and marketing for the Richmond-Upper Clarence Regional Library. “Needless to say, we’re all very surprised it was so far away. It’s comforting to know how interconnected the world is!”

Making the situation even more surprising, the Fond du Lac Public Library also received a book from a Canadian library on the same day, but since it was from the same continent, that return wasn’t as exciting as the one from an Aussie counterpart.

Since “Paradise Lost” has been withdrawn from circulation at the Richmond-Upper Clarence Regional Library, it’s free to continue its worldwide jaunt with no worry about late fines. 

Where will it go next? That’s up to the residents of Fond du Lac. It’s likely to be marked for sale at Chapter 52 Bookstore, where the Fond du Lac Public Library sells used books, movies, magazines and music at bargain prices. 

For now, however, staff at both libraries in Fond du Lac and Australia are enjoying their shared connection.

Photo caption, thumbnail photo above left: 

Linda P., a member of the Fond du Lac Public Library’s circulation staff, holds the copy of “Paradise Lost” discovered in the library’s book drop a week ago. The book originated at a library in Australia.

     
 

Above left, Amy Boyd holds a similar copy of “Paradise Lost” in front of the Richmond-Upper Clarence Regional Library, where she is in charge of collection and marketing in Casino, New South Wales, Australia. Boyd was surprised to discover that a book from her library had found its way to the other side of the world.

Above right, the book that showed up in the book drop at the Fond du Lac Public Library was marked as originating at the Richmond-Upper Clarence Regional Library, which is located in Casino, New South Wales, Australia.