Here’s The City of Dublin Public Libraries and Reading Rooms Rules and Regulations from 1917.
It’s quite interesting to see how much things have changed, and what hasn’t. A few of the rules are amusing:
“24. In cases of infectious diseases, Borrowers must not return books to the Library, but must hand them over to the Public Health Authorities, so that they may be disinfected.“
I so wish we had this rule at our library!
If we had a policy like this, it would end the reign of terror that one particular patron has wrought on our poor library… He takes at least three, sometimes as many as six newspapers, all at once… And stares at the articles in them simultaneously… Because even reading six papers at once, no one can possibly read this slowly. He has them for no less than an entire afternoon, and usually into the evening as well.
Meanwhile, everyone’s asking “Where’s the Globe? Where’s the Herald? The Observer? The Times? The Journal?”
So make one…
The most common rule regarding this kind of thing I have seen is that patrons are only allowed to take one newspaper/magazine at a time. When you bring that one back, you can take another one. This is not an uncommon, unreasonable, or unprecedented policy. It might irritate that one person who takes them all at once, but everyone else will appreciate it.