Thursday, July 30, 2009

Louise Brown Is the Hank Aaron of Library Patrons

One woman in Scotland has set what seems like an unbreakable record for the number of library books checked out in a lifetime - without ever having to pay a late fee.

Louise Brown is 91 years old now and she has been checking out about six books per week since 1946. That comes to somewhere in the neighborhood of 25,000 books and, amazingly, Louise has recently doubled her checkouts to twelve large print books every week.

From Mirror.co.uk comes the details:
She said: "My parents were great readers and I've always loved books.

"I started reading when I was five and have never stopped. I like anything I can get my hands on. I also like Mills & Boon for light reading at night."

Louise is now partially sighted and so mainly opts for large prints books.

But she gets through them so quickly she has almost exhausted the supply at the public library in Stranraer, south west Scotland. Janice Goldie, of Dumfries and Galloway Libraries, said: "We are amazed at Mrs Brown's achievements.

"When she first joined the library service, she was allowed to borrow six books a week. This has now risen to 12 and she always takes her full quota. The staff at Stranraer Library think she's a remarkable lady and look forward to her weekly visits."
Louise's librarians would like to know if anyone can break her record. If you know of someone who has even come close, do let the librarians at the Stranraer Library (Scotland) know about it - but I doubt that they're holding their breaths in anticipation.

(Photo is of Louise's library)

3 comments:

  1. This achievement is particularly notable because Ms. Brown was restricted to being able to borrow 6 and then 12 books from the libary. In the U.S., for the most part, we don't have these limits.

    Pauline J. Cohen
    (former Brit who used to have a hard time trying to get more than 3books at a time out of the Brighton and Hove libary, in E. Sussex, for my partially-sighted mother)

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  2. She's my hero!
    That is, most definitely something to be celebrated. They should rename the library for her :o)

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  3. Kathy, I agree about naming the library after her. She is quite a gal!

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