Better late than never: Karl Road branch library (finally) receives long overdue package

If you've experienced minor shipping delays in the past year or so, count yourself lucky. At least you've haven't been waiting years for a package.

Staff at the Karl Road branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library on the city's Northeast Side were treated to a surprise this week when a postal worker dropped off a package addressed to the branch's old location that closed in 1989.

Emily Walker, the branch's youth learning specialist, was there when her coworkers opened the medium-sized cardboard box with a yellowing label.

"What is that?" Walker remembers saying. "That looks like the oldest box of mail, ever."

Inside was a single cassette player placed in a Styrofoam box. Embossed with Braille, it likely was used to help the blind and visually impaired enjoy books without having to learn the entire Braille system.

The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, a free Braille and "talking book" library service for people with temporary or permanent low vision, blindness, or a physical, perceptual, or reading disability that prevents them from using regular print materials, used to send cassette players such as these to participating libraries all across the country.

Walker wasn't present when the package was delivered so she's not sure whether the postal service worker who dropped it off said anything about where or how it was found.  Still, the late delivery brings a smile to her face.

"It was pretty cool. The player was for the visually impaired because it had Braille on it," Walker said. "So it was really interesting to learn the library had those back in the day."

Monroe Trombly covers breaking and trending news.

mtrombly@dispatch.com

@MonroeTrombly