Opening a good book may send you on an adventure, but sometimes what’s left in them is more intriguing than what’s on the pages. Sharon McKellar, an Oakland Public Library librarian, has been collecting lost keepsakes placed in library books. She’s finally found a purpose for all of her old family photographs, notes, coupons, recipes, and concert tickets that she’s accumulated over the years.
McKellar developed the “Discovered in a Library Book” project, which is an online database of everything found in books at the Oakland Public Library in California. It began as her personal collection, she said, but it expanded when other library staff members began sending items as well.
“I sent out a call to other library workers, simply to see if anybody had anything they’d be willing to contribute,” McKellar told CBS News. “So it was an easy option to keep it continuing after I understood it wasn’t only me who had these things and appreciated these things.”
McKellar has uploaded 370 items to the library’s online collection, but she says she still has a few hundred more to go.
The “Found in a Library Book” collection has a lot of love letters.
“There are certainly some favorites – anything done by a youngster, I believe I adore,” she said.
Several drawings seem to have been left there by children. One is an artwork by a little child called CJ, which looks to depict his father with devil horns. Another depicts a robot father.
“I adore how youngsters express themselves via painting and writing,” McKellar remarked.
Many of the artifacts are notes, some written by children: “Dear librarian, those three kids over there are creating too much noise, and I can’t read and my buddy can’t complete his homework.”
Some examples from parents: “My love bug, good night. Have a restful night’s sleep.”
Some examples from partners: “Remember that I adore you, dear. Let us not bring the past with us into the present.”
Some are book reviews that have been left for the next reader: “This book was fantastic. It broke my heart and caused me to weep. You’ll know they’re mine if you see tear marks. Enjoy.”
The origins of most artifacts remains a mystery – although some people have claimed to recognize some items on the database.
Other items are less significant: an old playing card, a baggage tag, a Big Red gum wrapper, a pizza voucher, and a Vietnam pre-paid phone card. There are also various bookmarks, one of which says, “I adore my attitude issue.”
While the origins of the lost objects are unknown, McKellar claims that some individuals have identified things on the internet database. “Although they had not visited the Oakland Public Library, they resided in a neighboring city and recognized what they had written. So they’re not sure how it got here, but they’re assuming it was a message they wrote for someone else “She said.
“Another individual contacted me because one of the love letters resembled her parents’ handwriting and the kind of messages they used to write one other,” she said. “Her mother and she had looked at it and decided it may very well have been a letter shared between the mom and dad who had lived here in Oakland in the late ’80s.”
McKellar has added 370 forgotten objects to the database and still has a few hundred more to add.
The initiative is still in its early stages, but McKellar hopes it will motivate people to visit their local library since you never know what you could find: an old baby picture, a ticket to a 2004 Oakland A’s game, or a map of Japan, all of which were discovered in a library book, she said.
“In a way, you have a feeling of shared space. So even if you don’t know what book this item originated from, even if you weren’t the one who discovered it, you get a feeling that this person is or was in the same community as me, utilizing the same resources “McKellar said. “I think part of the reason people are really enthusiastic about it right now is that we’ve clearly gone through a disconnecting moment with COVID, and so it’s a way to kind of feel a connection to people you don’t even know via these products.”