In a bustling world of academia, a clandestine fortress of knowledge emerges from an unsuspecting grad student’s apartment, shaking the foundations of a university library’s financial ledger.
A graduate student found herself at the center of a startling controversy, locked in a financial showdown with her university library. Harnessing the power of social media platform TikTok, the student, identified only as Hannah, confessed to her followers about the heart-stopping moment she discovered that she owed a whopping $11,900 in library fines. This extraordinary debt was the result of Hannah’s unintentional hoarding of 119 books from her university library, all essential for her ongoing studies.
Over several years, Hannah held onto these books, transforming her living space into an extension of the library, fully stocked with academic materials. But her intentions were purely scholarly – Hannah claims she has been actively using these resources for her research, intending to return them once her dissertation was completed.
The magnitude of her predicament came crashing down when she received a chilling email from the library. An administrative representative outlined the debt she had unknowingly racked up, stating: “As it stands, your library account has $11,900 owed for 119 lost books.” The email highlighted the library’s policy regarding overdue books, which were classified as ‘lost’ after 30 days, thereby attracting a flat fine of $100 per book.
With 119 books well past their due dates, Hannah found herself facing an astronomical $11,900 in fines. The library’s stern reminder clarified that patrons have a responsibility to renew their borrowed items in a timely fashion and that weekly reminders were sent to aid in this process.
Astonishingly, Hannah documented her predicament through a TikTok video that showcased her vast collection of library books neatly stacked around her living space. She defended herself in the video, affirming, “The books aren’t lost. I’m just hoarding them until I finish my dissertation.” Despite having the books for “years,” Hannah maintained they were neither lost nor stolen but simply “still in use.”
However, her revelations sparked mixed reactions from the online community. One viewer commented sarcastically, “You mean to tell me that I cannot steal books they intended me to borrow? Unbelievable.” Another viewer insisted that keeping library books past their due date was tantamount to stealing, a lesson Hannah admits to having learned the hard way.
Some questioned how Hannah let the situation spiral out of control. To this, she candidly responded that renewing the books had been on her to-do list but consistently got overlooked due to its seeming insignificance amidst her daunting academic workload.
Further fueling the controversy, one viewer raised the issue of Hannah potentially hindering others from accessing those books. Writing: “Imagine all the poor people on waiting lists for years to finally see these books.”
Hannah responded that the books could still be requested by other patrons, triggering a return notice. She claimed that no such requests had come in during her tenure of the books.
Hannah replied to that comment with, “They can still be requested by patrons, and then I would get a return notice. No one has wanted them.”
In a fortunate twist, the saga reached a positive conclusion. Hannah managed to renew the overdue books and settle her enormous debt with a much more manageable $20 fee, leaving her, and no doubt her TikTok followers, sighing in relief with a heartfelt “Thank goodness.”
Source: AWM
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