I love this story!

And of course, as library people, your first thought should be “Oh no! Copyright violation!” But have no fear. First of all: it’s England and they have different laws. Second: this is an old book and, I’m guessing, out of copyright. So if this is something you want to do, or if you have a similar book/patron situation and want us to record some things for you, it’s certainly possible!

We are including an excerpt here, and you can find the whole article here.

“Librarians are recording an audiobook for a 102-year-old woman so she can again enjoy a story read to her decades ago by her “wonderful” father.

Doris Bugg wanted to reminisce with the 1927 novel Portrait of Clare, but the out-of-print book was unavailable at her library in Ipswich, Suffolk.

Touched by her memories, librarians bought a copy for her online and are reading all 873 pages, recorded on CDs.

“I was absolutely amazed at the kindness of them,” said Mrs Bugg.

Mrs Bugg regularly visited the town centre library in person until about a couple of years ago and continues to borrow audiobooks.

During lockdown she has received regular phone calls from library staff checking on her welfare and to chat, which is how they heard about the book, which was the first one she got from the library.”