Library books more than three years overdue
A comic book is more than three years and seven months overdue for return to the Shetland Library, it can be revealed.
The Wrath of Apokolips! by Art Baltazar is one of the many books which are missing from the library’s collection.
A Freedom of Information request to Shetland Islands Council showed the top 10 most overdue books missing from the library on Lerwick’s Hillhead.
It also showed that thousands more people visited the building in July 2025 than in the same month of the previous year - up by more than a third.
DC Comic’s The Wrath of Apokolips! was recorded as the third longest overdue at the library in 2024. The top two, as reported by this newspaper last year, were Shetland traditional lore Jessie Saxby and The gigantic turnip by Alexander Afanasyev.
These had since been returned to the library leaving the story about comic book hero Superman at the top of the list.
Other books on the list included: Guinness world records 2017; Life-sized animal tracks by John Townsend; Kittens in trouble by Lucy Daniels; Sea otters by G R Van Blaricom; and Maisie Dappletrot saves the day by Daisy Meadows.
Each of these had been overdue by three years six months and a day, according to the figures which covered until 31st August 2025.
More than 9,000 people visited the Shetland Library in July, the FoI showed.
According to the data, 9,075 people were recorded as visitors in the building across the whole month.
This was a 36 per cent rise since July 2024, when the council had 6,628 visitors.
July 2025’s footfall figure was the highest it had recorded over the 12 month period. March was the month with the highest footfall until July - 8,594.
The quietest month recorded in the FoI was last December. A little more than 3,660 people paid a visit to library that month.
December was also the quietest month for the mobile library, with 77 people making use of it.
November 2024 was the busiest month (172 visitors), with the footfall fluctuating between 10 and 159 since then.