- Biden, Harris mark Oct. 7 with call for Mideast peace
- Dupont set for Toulouse return after post-Olympic holiday
- French rugby bosses tighten discipline after nightmare Argentina tour
- Oil prices extend gains on Mideast tensions, Wall Street slips
- Visitors to get rare view of Rome's Trevi Fountain
- Europe's asteroid mission Hera launches despite hurricane
- Man City and Premier League both claim victory in legal case
- Deschamps delight as 'light back on' for Pogba after doping ban
- Biden, Harris urge Mideast peace on Oct. 7 anniversary
- Neeskens, tough midfielder in Cruyff's Ajax and Dutch teams
- UN warns world's water cycle becoming ever more erratic
- Oil prices extend gains on Mideast tensions, Wall Street retreats
- Ex-Dutch football star Johan Neeskens dies
- Man Utd battling to improve fortunes, says Evans
- What is microRNA? Nobel-winning discovery explained
- Masood, Abdullah centuries lift Pakistan to 328-4 in first England Test
- Hurricane Milton strengthens fast, threatens Mexico, Florida
- Tunisia's President Saied set for landslide election win
- Barca hoping to return to Camp Nou 'by end of year'
- Trump to open second golf course at Scotland resort in summer 2025
- Super-sub Jhon Duran rewarded with new Aston Villa deal
- US duo win Nobel for gene regulation breakthrough
- Masood hits first ton for four years to power Pakistan to 233-1
- Fritz wins delayed match to reach Shanghai Masters third round
- Naomi Osaka pulls out of Japan Open with back injury
- Weather may delay launch of mission to study deflected asteroid
- China to flesh out economic stimulus plans after bumper rally
- Artist Marina Abramovic hopes first China show offers tech respite
- Asian markets track Wall St rally on US jobs data
- Pakistan 122-1 at lunch in first England Test
- Kazakhs approve plan for first nuclear power plant
- World marks anniversary of Oct. 7 attack on Israel
- 'Second family': tennis stars hunt winning formula with new coaches
- Philippines, South Korea agree to deepen maritime cooperation
- Mexico mayor murdered days after taking office
- Sardinia's sheep farmers battle bluetongue as climate warms
- Japan govt admits doctoring 'untidy' cabinet photo
- Israel marks first anniversary of Hamas's October 7 attack
- Darvish tames Ohtani as Padres thrash Dodgers
- Asian markets track Wall St rally on jobs data
- Family affair as LeBron, Bronny James make Lakers bow
- Cancer, cardiovascular drugs tipped for Nobel as prize week opens
- As Great Salt Lake dries, Utah Republicans pardon Trump climate skepticism
- Amazon activist warns of 'critical situation' ahead of UN forum
- Mourners pay tribute to latest victims of deadly Channel crossing
- Tunisia incumbent Saied set to win presidential vote: exit polls
- Phillies win thriller to level Mets series
- Yu bags first PGA Tour win with playoff win
- PSG held by Nice to leave Monaco clear at top of Ligue 1
- AC Milan fall at Fiorentina after De Gea's penalty heroics
RBGPF | -1.97% | 58.94 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.12% | 24.784 | $ | |
NGG | -1.23% | 65.69 | $ | |
SCS | -0.49% | 12.907 | $ | |
RYCEF | -1.45% | 6.88 | $ | |
RIO | -0.17% | 69.58 | $ | |
GSK | 0.08% | 38.85 | $ | |
CMSC | -0.17% | 24.657 | $ | |
VOD | 0.41% | 9.7 | $ | |
RELX | -0.59% | 46.02 | $ | |
BCC | 0.76% | 139.97 | $ | |
JRI | -0.23% | 13.25 | $ | |
BCE | -0.58% | 33.515 | $ | |
BP | 0.86% | 33.165 | $ | |
AZN | -0.41% | 77.15 | $ | |
BTI | -0.18% | 35.225 | $ |
Between the covers: Librarian reveals left-behind treasures
Family photos, a Public Enemy backstage pass, a weekend to-do list ("Saturday: file taxes, Sunday: chill, watch game") and unused beer vouchers from 2002: it's amazing what people leave in library books.
For years, one US librarian has made a collection of the flotsam she found between the pages of borrowed titles.
Now Sharon McKellar is opening her trove for visitors to the library in Oakland, California, in a special exhibition called "Found in a Library Book".
"I wanted to share something that was really interesting to me that I had a feeling would be interesting to other people," said McKellar, supervising librarian for teen services at Oakland Public Library.
It "tells a story of our community and our city in a different and sort of unexpected way and ties back to the library."
Among the make-and-make-do bookmarks of children's art and Christmas snapshots, there are letters written but never sent, notes from lovers, and postcards of thanks -- "I got your check," it says on the back of an illustration from "Alice in Wonderland."
Each of them offers a snapshot -- tantalizing or mundane -- of the life of the person who left it there.
"There are some that are letters or cards or postcards that were sent between people -- or maybe not actually sent -- that feel really personal," McKellar told AFP.
"There are some notes and letters that feel very unfinished. Or I really want to know what happened next."
- 'INCREDIBLY HOT!!!' -
McKellar began collecting the apocrypha around 10 years ago and has blogged about her hobby for several years, but the chance to curate an exhibition came when the library launched a new website.
This allowed her to group the ephemera by theme or category -- including notes, art, photos, cards and letters, artifacts, bookmarks, creative writing, lists, and kids' items.
Some entries overlap and fit into two or more boxes, like an interview that a child carried out with their grandmother about how and why she immigrated from Vietnam decades earlier.
Others defy easy categorization -- a print of a 2008 recipe for pot roast has the admonition "Behave" in the large blank space before the ingredient list begins.
Some letters are meditative, like that thanking its anonymous recipient for "all that you do," but acknowledging "We do have a tendency to argue. I'm working on stopping that."
Others, including "Ruminations from an O.G." are filled with regret:
"27 years in this madhouse / my fate sealed long ago / if you are young, get out now / you can do better / Go back to school. Learn a skill. / The Post Office is no place to be somebody / It is high school with a paycheck.
"You will not grow here / you will stagnate, losing your soul, mind and body / Listen to your heart / Hear what it says!"
The glimpses of lives lived and preserved in between the pages of a book are special to McKellar.
"There are... some that really sound like somebody's... inner thoughts, like, you know, (they're) trying to talk themselves through a really hard time or trying to give themselves a pep talk," she said.
"There's obviously no way of knowing who wrote them, which is probably for the best."
One part of the display collates the jury-rigged bookmarks readers insert when they find themselves without any other way to mark their place.
Among them a flier for a Beatles memorabilia shop in London, concert tickets, a sticker from the Euro 2012 football championships, phone cards, a receipt for new windshield wipers and that favorite standby of the traveling reader -- the airplane boarding pass.
But the note that McKellar particularly loves is one presumably penned by an infatuated teenager.
"OK, so I just want to say that I find it AMAZING how, no matter what Newt is doing, he either looks SUPER ADORABLE or INCREDIBLY HOT!!!"
P.Mathewson--AMWN