Libraries usually don’t care so much about the bookmarks that readers leave. But this time the University of Liverpool, England, punched the table: Last Wednesday, it learned that a student had left a slice of vacuum-packed cheddar in a work, “between American history and geography“It was another reader who discovered him the day before, and in shock, did not remember which book he was in. The author of the crime was therefore not found, but the library split ‘a little magisterial tweet with the photo of the murder weapon: “This is not a bookmark.“
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The anecdote launched a contest of jokes and puns on the theme of cheese: “This book has been loaned to Gordon Zola“,”it must be put in front of the feta compli“, Etc. Meanwhile, the university’s deputy director, Alex Widdeson, explained to the BBC that if the library did not ban readers from eating cold food, it “prefer not to use snacks as a bookmark“, especially when they are likely to melt, as was the case with the poor cheddar slice …
According to the deputy director, this is not the first time that food has been found on the shelves of the library. “A few years ago, we had a shelf-wich, a sandwich packaging that had been used as a book hold, and we regularly find tangerines on our computers“Alex Widdeson said. Beyond the mess, this kind of mishap could cause pest problems. At the University of Liverpool, we’d rather settle for … library rats.
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