My interlibrary loan request came back with a 1984 VHS tape inside

Last Tuesday I asked my local branch for a specific 1997 book on local river history. Instead they handed me a padded envelope with a dusty VHS tape labeled 'River Tales, Vol. 2' and a handwritten note saying 'closest we got.' I don't own a VCR, so I drove 20 minutes to a pawn shop and bought one for $15 just to see what was on it. Turns out it was a 40 minute local news segment from 1984 about flood damage, not the book at all. The librarian shrugged and said the tape was 'in the system' as a substitute. Has anyone else ever gotten something completely different from an interlibrary loan, like a record or a microfiche card?

2 comments

2 Comments

dylan26525d ago

They gave you a VHS tape as a substitute for a book? That's wild. I'd have been half expecting to find a Betamax next time. The handwritten note really seals it for me, like the system just gave up and threw a random artifact at you.

avery_roberts6724d ago

Is that tape even watchable after sitting in a library for 40 years... probably full of mold and static. At least you got a weird story out of it, which is more than that book would've given you. Honestly, the librarian shrugging is the best part of this whole mess.