Posted on December 21, 2019 at 4:00 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

A while back, we shared the story of a professor in Florida whose excessive checkouts incurred the wrath of librarians.

It set us to wondering whether our followers had ever found themselves in hot water amongst the book stacks.

Sure enough, they delivered true tales of library trouble (along with a tongue-in-cheek answer of "I'm having a hard time imagining a librarian's wrath. Perhaps the stamp removed from the counter and a steely glare.")

Here are our Facebook fans' sob stories ...

Judith B.: I was tossed out of a library when I was 8 for reading too many books in one day. I returned the ones I had read but wasn't allowed to check out any more, so I read four in the library and was banned.

They had their rules, but I honestly believe I occupied a cranky patron's favorite seat. The good news is that because I was banned, I wrote stories for my younger sisters and brother. I see stories everywhere.

Beth C.: The town I grew up in was small, and so was the library.

I was (and still am) a voracious reader, and one summer, I think I was nine or ten, I’d read all the books allowed for my age range, and the librarian wouldn't let me check out any of the older-age books.

I still had more than a month of summer left — it was torture.

Pat D.: When I was in grade school, I was a fast reader, and I was always getting books and reading.

The decision was made by the girls in charge that no one could read that fast, therefore, you cannot get any more books!

Katy Q.: The local bookmobile that comes around neighborhoods in the summer once told me I couldn’t check out any more books and would have to do so at the main library because I had read every book in my age category and they didn’t change books but yearly.

I was heartbroken! I didn’t have a way to the library, and the summer wasn’t over.

Ellen R.: They only let kids check out two or three books at a time. My mom would walk with me to the library multiple times a day to get new ones. I was a preschooler but already an avid reader.

The librarian got mad that I came back so often and told my mom that there was “no way” I could be reading so many books a day and tried to limit our visits.

Mom got really mad on my behalf. Then she asked me to read the book out loud to the librarian. The librarian tutted but never said another word to us.

I mean, really, this was a small-town branch and it wasn't like I was adding a lot of work to their day. I certainly never forgot their attitude.

On the other hand, patrons aren't always the kindest to their librarians ...

Jim E.: While most faculty members are rather cool, we do have the few who are —shall we say — less than pleasant to the staff, especially when told they have books that are extremely overdue and need to be returned.

Even worse is when those books were requested through Interlibrary Loans and the owning library is threatening to block the entire university because of them.

Then we get these when they do return them:

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