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The Manitou Springs Library recently received an old book (copyright 1897) with a typed letter explaining where the book has been the past few years. It is a touching story of a book that affected a patron many years ago, traveled the world, and returned.

Dear Manitou Springs Public Library,

As a kid, many years before Manitou Springs became a redeveloped historic community, I spent hours and hours as a latchkey child with a single mother discovering classic books in your library. I remember the Manitou Springs Public Library as a mystical place of knowledge; an historic building whose contents fueled a desire for learning. Based on a desire for knowledge, I kept up my grades throughout school, eventually earned a scholarship to University, and graduated with a bachelor degree.

One of the numerous books I checked out from your library was a 19th century picture book with delightful poems, photographs and stories about ancient Greco-Roman mythology. I had intended to return the book; however it was inadvertently packed in a box of belongings and moved from the area when my family suddenly relocated. Unfortunately, this was in the days before the Internet. I do not recall seeing the Manitou Public Library’s address anywhere within the volume, and could not return it.

Eventually, after numerous relocations throughout the world, the book was finally lost … perhaps in a box that was not delivered … perhaps in a truck … or perhaps some divine deity from our mythological past decided enough was enough. Wherever that volume disappeared to, it was gone from the bookshelves that had temporarily lent it a place to rest during its global travels.

Recently, I happened to remember the name of that volume and searched for it online and was delighted to learn it was neither an expensive nor a rare book, and there were numerous copies of it available so I ordered a volume to replace the missing book. That volume turned out to be a second edition; apparently this may have been quite a popular book for several generations of school children. Then I searched again, and found a first edition; printed in the 19th century, as I had remembered.

Enclosed in this package is that first edition of Round the Year in Myth and Song to replace the inspirational book of my childhood, to which I had become attached throughout the years before it was lost, so that it may return to your historic shelves, where I first found it many, many years ago. I hope you will accept my apologies for not returning the original book before it mysteriously vanished, and also my thanks for the gifts of knowledge and desire for learning that I received so long ago, as an elementary school kid who discovered a world of adventure within a small building in Manitou Springs.

Yours truly,
“Anon”

Picture this: You're lounging at a remote beach in the Caribbean. Suddenly you realize you have holds available at the library. Oh, the humanity!

Luckily, you can suspend holds that are not available yet. You still rise up the hold queue when the hold is suspended, but it doesn’t become available until the “unsuspend” date.

Here's how you do it:

• Log in to My Account.
• Click on the Holds tab.
• Select the title you'd like to suspend and click the "Suspend Hold(s)" button at the bottom of the list.
• Enter the start and end dates for the suspension.
• To cancel your hold suspension, select the title you'd like to unsuspend and click the "Cancel Hold Suspension(s)" button at the bottom of the list.

Awesome!