The discovery occurred when Stewart Plein, the curator of uncommon books at West Virginia University Libraries, was sorting by way of a latest donation of books.
Plein discovered the treatise and seen it had been a part of the gathering on the New Bedford library and, critically, had not been stamped “Withdrawn,” indicating that while extremely overdue, the book had not been discarded.
Plein contacted Jodi Goodman, the special collections librarian in New Bedford, to alert her to the find.
“This came back in extremely good condition,” New Bedford Public Library Director Olivia Melo said Friday.
“Someone obviously kept this on a nice bookshelf because it was in such good shape and probably got passed down in the family.”
The treatise was first revealed in 1881, two years after Maxwell’s loss of life in 1879, though the cranberry-colored copy now again on the New Bedford library just isn’t thought-about a uncommon version of the work, Melo stated.
The library sometimes receives books as a lot as 10 or 15 years overdue, however nothing wherever near a century or extra, she stated.
The treatise was revealed at a time when the world was nonetheless rising to grasp the chances of electrical energy. In 1880, Thomas Edison acquired a historic patent embodying the ideas of his incandescent lamp.
When the ebook was final in New Bedford, the nation was making ready for its second trendy World Series, incumbent Republican President Theodore Roosevelt was on monitor to win one other time period, Wilbur and Orville Wright had performed their first airplane flight only a yr earlier than and New York City was celebrating its first subway line.
The discovery and return of the ebook is a testomony to the sturdiness of the printed phrase, particularly in a time of computerization and on the spot entry to unfathomable quantities of knowledge, Melo stated.
“The value of the printed book is it’s not digital, it’s not going to disappear. Just holding it, you get the sense of someone having this book 120 years ago and reading it, and here it is in my hands,” she said.
“It is still going to be here a hundred years from now. The printed book is always going to be valuable.”
The New Bedford library has a 5-cent-per-day late fee. At that rate, someone returning a book overdue by 119 years would face a hefty fee of more than US$2100 (AU$3139). The good news is the library’s late fee limit maxes out at $2.
Another lesson of the find, according to Melo? It’s never too late to return a library book.
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Source: www.9news.com.au
