John Hanson

Man Returns 132-Year-Overdue Magazine During Fine Freeze

A 132-year overdue issue of The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine from September 1894 was returned to the Concord Public Library amid a one-year fine freeze the library is testing to gauge whether waiving fines improves overdue-item returns; the item’s owner said it had sat in his home for decades and avoided a $12,055 bill. The library does not plan to re-circulate the magazine and will instead display or preserve it while evaluating the policy’s effects.