Introduction

I have worked in three different university libraries over the course of 10 years, always as part of technical services. One of the main components of the work I have done is to flip through books to either check that they are bound correctly, or that they have not been trimmed too closely to the edge, or to find items that are not part of the book so that I can remove them before they circulate. These items can include anything from blank sticky notes to paperclips, to more personal things like letters and photographs. I have decided to start documenting the items that I find interesting, because these items have changed from ordinary bookmarks to stories about where the book has gone and what sort of person has borrowed it.