Kansas Library Board Weighs $565.75 Fine
SALINA, Kansas — A retired dairy farmer returned a library copy of the Animal Farm Orwell book to the Smoky Hill County Library this week, 31 years after he checked it out, and the library board spent most of a public meeting deciding who should pay the $565.75 in overdue fines.
The farmer, 84-year-old Elmer Schuette, walked the book to the circulation desk in a bread bag. He said he wanted it back where it belonged before his grandson finished cleaning out the machine shed, which he described as “the last place anything in my family gets looked at.”
“I got about halfway,” Schuette said. “Then it was calving season, and then it was harvest, and then it was a long time.”
How the Animal Farm the Book Went Missing
Schuette said he borrowed the book after a neighbor told him it was about a farm. He kept it in the cab of a tractor for most of a summer, then moved it to a shelf in the milking parlor, and later to a coffee can of loose bolts, where it sat until the cleanout.
He said he has since learned the author had some farm experience himself. According to Country Life’s look at the real farm and animals behind the story, the book grew out of a place with livestock, and Schuette said that matched his own reading. “The man knew what a pig does when nobody’s watching,” he said.
He did not finish the book before returning it. He said the last page he read had a pig on a barn wall and a paintbrush, and he marked it with a feed receipt. The receipt is still in there.
Library Board Debates the Animal Farm Orwell Book Fine
Library director Walt Brandvold said the fine calculated automatically at five cents a day, which over 11,315 days comes to $565.75. He said the computer printed the figure without comment. The board took it up under new business, and the minutes of the discussion are public.
Item 4. Fine on returned copy of Animal Farm, 31 years overdue. Member Hagedorn moved to waive the fine. Member Lindgren objected, noting that the fine policy applies to all patrons equally. Member Hagedorn agreed and withdrew the motion. Member Lindgren then moved to waive a fine on Member Lindgren’s own overdue cookbook. Chair ruled the motion in order. Motion carried 4 to 1. Item 5. Policy language amended to read: “All patrons are subject to fines, except where the board decides otherwise.” Adopted by voice vote.
Board president Doreen Hagedorn said the amendment was a clarification and not a change. “The policy always said everyone was treated the same,” she said. “We’ve just made the wording more flexible.”
Asked who the lone dissenting vote was, Brandvold said he was not permitted to say, and that it was him.
What the Overdue Notice for the Animal Farm Book Says
Schuette received the notice at the desk. He said he read it standing up, then asked for a chair and read it again.
OVERDUE NOTICE. Item: Animal Farm (Orwell). Days overdue: 11,315. Daily rate: $0.05. Amount due: $565.75. Waivers: see board. Patrons in good standing: none. Please return other materials promptly. Thank you for supporting your library.
Schuette said he does not mind paying and has already offered to settle the bill with a standing order of eggs. Brandvold said the library has no policy for eggs but would take it under advisement, which he said in this case means the board would meet again in the cookbook room.
Teachers Say the Animal Farm Book Is Hard to Finish Late
Carol Metzinger, a retired English teacher who assigned the book to sophomores for thirty-four years, said she was not surprised. “It runs about ninety pages,” she said. “Most students finished it in an evening. Mr. Schuette is the first person I’ve heard of who took three decades, and I want to be clear that he’s the one who gets the extra credit.”
Metzinger said the book has never been an easy one to place. The British Library has digitized the rejection letter T. S. Eliot sent when the manuscript was offered to his publisher, and she keeps a copy on her refrigerator. She said the full history of the Animal Farm book, including its long record on school reading lists, is laid out in the encyclopedia entry and is worth the afternoon.
“It’s a short book that takes a long time to be understood,” she said. “Mr. Schuette is proof of the second half.”
Patrons React to the Animal Farm Orwell Book Fine
Patrons waiting at the desk offered a range of views. One woman returning a stack of picture books said she supported the fine, since she had been charged $1.15 the week before for a book that was one day late. A man in a feed cap said he would be checking his own shelves tonight and asked the room not to write that down.
A teenager at the public computers said he had read the Animal Farm Orwell book last year for school and would be happy to tell Schuette how it ends. Schuette said he would rather find out for himself, and added that he had a feeling about the pigs.
Brandvold said the board will meet again next month to consider a formal amnesty week. Under the draft, anyone with a book out for more than a decade could return it with no fine, provided they are friends of a board member.
Humorous Observations on the Animal Farm Orwell Book
- Thirty-one years. This man held onto a book about a rigged system longer than most of us have held onto a gym membership, and he still wants to see how it ends.
- The library board said everybody gets treated the same, then voted to waive their own fines in the same meeting. You couldn’t have written that more clearly if you’d put it on a barn wall.
- Five cents a day for thirty-one years. A bank would call that compound interest and send you a calendar. The library just calls it Tuesday.
- The man stopped reading at the paintbrush scene and marked his place with a feed receipt. That’s the most honest bookmark in the history of reading. It says, I’ll be back, and also, here’s what I owe for the hay.
- Offering to pay a $565 fine in eggs. Brother, that’s not a payment plan. That’s a barter economy with a library card.
Last Updated on November 4, 2026 by Alan Nafzger