College library is charging me for a book I RETURNED

On Tuesday evening after my class was over I checked out a book, which MUST be returned within 2 hours, and it was not even 30 minutes when I returned the book. I gave it to the gentleman who is the assistant library and I left afterwards. Three days later I’m getting an email that is charging me for late and book replacement fees when I know I returned it. The reason I checked out the book in the first place was to take pictures of the pages that I had to read since I don’t yet have the book (it is still on its way).

I’m feeling beyond frustrated because apart from not having a return receipt, earlier that SAME day I also checked out a book and when I returned it after using it for half an hour the SAME gentleman said just leave it at the counter, when I was waiting for him to scan it. Instead of following my gut feeling of waiting the librarian assistant to scan my book, I assumed he was going to do it on his own time as he said “just leave it there”. So logically, I assumed the same scenario with the book I checked out in the evening.

I’m overwhelmed and I feel helpless because I don’t have a receipt or evidence. Could I ask the library to check their cameras? I walked out of the library without taking any book with me. And perhaps the library could have caught the footage where I DO return the book. What do I do?

You can ask the library to check its shelves, wherever this book normally is filed. (I’m assuming it’s on reserve, not on the shelves for you to check.) This happened so many times to DH, who was a high volume library user in his own work. Go speak with someone in charge. Be calm and polite. Good luck.

Thank you for the advice