Oakland Public Library Exhibits Items Found in Returned Books

[This article first appeared in the May/June 2023 issue of Writer's Digest magazine.]

The author of this hand-written note is unknown, as is the recipient. It was found in a book returned to the Oakland Public Library in Oakland, Calif., likely used as a bookmark. It says so much, yet reveals so little. Who were these people? What was their relationship? Did they ever stop arguing and focus instead on having a good time?

This anonymous note, just five sentences long, is one of hundreds of items found in returned books that Sharon McKellar, supervising librarian for teen services, has posted on the “Found in a Library Book” page on the Oakland Public Library’s
website.

“Right now, there are 439 items catalogued on the website, and I have probably another hundred that are scanned on my computer but not shared yet,” McKellar tells Writer’s Digest. “There is also another hundred or so in a box under my desk.”

McKellar, who has worked at the Oakland Public Library since 2003, started collecting items found in returned books around 10 years ago, and asked colleagues at the library’s 18 locations to pass along anything unique they found as well. “When I started collecting found items, I was overseeing the library’s public website and public relations communications,” she explains. “At the time, our website had some exciting new blogs, and I was trying to think of ideas for content that would be a little more fun than the usual program notices and book lists. I was a fan of a publication called Found Magazine that published things found and submitted by people all over, and I thought it would be fun to feature some of the stuff found in library books on our blog.”

Found in a Library Book is divided into categories, including Found Notes, Found Art, Found Photos, Cards and Letters, Found Facts, Found Bookmarks, Found Creative Writing, Found by Kids, and Found Artifacts. Within these categories, you’ll find an eclectic array of materials that truly cross the spectrum: ticket stubs from movies and plays, airline boarding passes, a beer label, pressed flowers, a 1-day Barcelona sightseeing ticket, a sleep mask, playing cards, a sigmoidoscopy prescription, a dental report (“Excellent Patient!”), a map of Japan, a pizza coupon, a baseball ticket stub (Athletics vs. Orioles), a $3 bill featuring Hillary Clinton, Hi! From a Gay Guy!, a Stonewall Jackson trading card, and much more.

According to McKellar, the most common items found in returned books are bookmarks. Most are the commercial type, but plenty of homemade bookmarks have been found as well, along with items not usually regarded as bookmarks, such as a crochet hook, an unopened packet of sugar, and, perhaps most unusual of all, a small plastic piece that McKellar believes came from a dishwasher. “I don’t know how to describe it,” she says. “It’s round and it says KitchenAid. It’s like something on the front of an appliance that got pulled off.”

Patrons have also left behind numerous Polaroid photos, along with lists, personal notes, holiday cards, and, most puzzling of all, important personal items such as driver’s licenses, Social Security cards, credit cards, and even a signed check. Whenever possible, McKellar says, important personal items are returned to the patrons who forgot them.

There is no particular kind of book or genre that sees the greatest number of found items. “My understanding is it’s across the board,” observes McKellar. “Although, to be fair, I usually don’t know what books items are found in because they’re sent to me from library staff around the system. Every once in a while, someone will tell me what book they found something in, especially if it’s humorous or relevant, but it really runs the gamut.”

McKellar admits that some of the items have touched her personally, especially photographs taken before the digital era. “I really like Polaroid photos because you have the sense that it might be the only image that exists of that particular moment,” McKellar says. “There are also some really lovely notes and postcards between people, including some that are wishful about love lost and such.”

McKellar says she’s also often moved by little notes that people appear to have written to themselves. She recalls one in particular, which reads almost like a poem:

“I want to know the backstory of everything in our collection,” McKellar says. “I think that’s why it’s intriguing. With some of them, you can sort of understand or guess where they came from or when. But we don’t know. So, things that seem really innocuous might actually have some sort of deep meaning to the person who left it behind. And things that feel really important may not actually matter to the person. It’s interesting to me that we just tell ourselves stories about the items and can imagine all different versions of their lives before they landed in our library.”

McKellar recalls only one item that she would consider disturbing because it looked like it was possibly related to mail-order wives. However, by the time it was discovered, she says, there really wasn’t any immediate urgency or concern.

“One of the things I’ve noticed about the collection, and I’ve thought about this more and more, is that overall it’s pretty positive,” McKellar adds. “I think that’s interesting, given that these are items people weren’t putting out for display purposes. There’s some sadness, but there’s not a lot of anger or violence of any sort. There have been a few things that were perhaps too explicit to put on the website.”

Archiving hundreds of found items over the years has left McKellar with a strong sense of empathy for patrons who appear to be going through something emotionally difficult, or were at the time the item was left behind. “I feel that others may find things in the collection that make them feel more emotional as well,” she observes.

Identifying information, such as names and addresses, is removed before each item is catalogued and posted on Found in a Library Book. Still, a handful of patrons have recognized notes or other items that they or another family member had written, and were excited to see them in the collection. “One person recognized two photos of herself from childhood that had been lost,” McKellar notes. “She was very excited to have them back. It was really, really lovely.”

The hundreds of items in the collection reveal much about those who left them behind—as well as about the kind of people who read and, more importantly, patronize their local library.

“The items are so broad in scope that I feel it reflects on how much of our community, how much of Oakland, uses the library and reads,” McKellar says. “There are items in many different languages, there are items talking about many different things. Obviously, there are plenty of people in our community who don’t use a library or who aren’t readers. But when you look at this collection as a whole and see how broad the range is of readers and library users, it’s part of what makes it really cool.”

Found in a Library Book is a fun repository of ephemera and other items, but the project carries greater significance than merely archiving found weird stuff. “I believe there is importance in a couple of ways,” McKellar says. “For example, it really shows this beautiful side of humanity, an unintentionally public side. We’re seeing this cross section of the community, all of these different people and these little glimpses of their lives, and it feels really personal. I think that’s really nice, especially now. We’ve become very disconnected, and I think it’s a way to bring us all together as a community. I also think there’s something nice about these physical items in a time where so much is digital. Of course, I’m digitizing some for the website, but before that they were a physical thing in a physical book that made its way to our library. It shows how well libraries are still in use, how many people read books. And it’s fun.”