ibrary Books

ome time ago Baron Von Lodge was the head of a small country near Switzerland known as Lilliland.

It was reported to the Baron and his chief advisor, Professor Hamblin, that there were too many library books that were not brought back on time. The head librarian of the Lilliland library wanted to increase the annual budget to make up for the delinquent books. If not, the librarian wanted to take some drastic action against those citizens who had overdue library books. The librarian even went so far as to say that the people who did not bring their books back on time should be arrested.

When the Baron heard of the problem and the forms of solution that might be considered, he immediately consulted Professor Hamblin. He said that since Lilliland was like Switzerland, a neutral country in time of war, he saw no reason to have internal strife over library books.

The librarian was called into the Baron’s office, with Professor Hamblin, and told to handle the situation in a very kind and gentle manner. Simply inform the people who had delinquent books that they will not be allowed to remove any more books from the library until they mended their ways. In the future, they may be asked to pay a fee based on the replacement value of each book before it is borrowed. The money would be returned to the borrower when the book was returned.

The plan was promptly put into effect and the results were impressive. No one was harassed and the library budget was as good as ever.

Both the Baron and Professor Hamblin agreed that a good library was the cornerstone of a good country.