h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Now, see, that's what I mean.

That Patriot Act, letting people find out what books people have borrowed. I mean, if even George Washington can't get any privacy about his reading choices, what's left?

We have a maximum fine. And books that are unreturned for a certain length of time, far less than 200 years, are presumed lost and purged. I see no reason to know that in 1947 a person dead since 1949 failed to return a Zane Grey novel that was replaced in 1950 and later discarded because it was printed on high-acid paper and fell to pieces in 1967.

I ~am~ rather disappointed that the Founding Fathers didn't seem to grasp the concept of the public library - returning matrerials so someone else has a chance to read them. Perhaps we should have paid Washington better. Then he could have afforded his own books. Course it would be taking money from the taxpayer either way.

It seems they just recently discovered this as they were digitizing their early records. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8627835.stm