Library strangeness

I noticed the other day that the only book I have out from the library was overdue, so like any responsible person I ignored it. It is now two weeks overdue, but as chance would have it a colleague who works on the technical side of the library system sauntered by this morning. We chatted about this and that, and then I remembered my book. Somewhat cheekily I asked him if he could delete my fine and renew the book for me. I didn't really expect him to, but he said he would.

(It amused me to learn that in the course of testing the system he often puts ridiculously large fines on the accounts of colleagues. The largest fine you can have is £999,999.99. He does take them off of course, eventually, and then the accounting point gets a report of total fines that come in at several million, with several million being waived.)

So later this afternoon I get a call from him. He has looked at my account and according to the library system I have no fines, and no books out either. He took down my card number to double check, and still nothing. I recently had my card changed from an old type to a new type, and wondered if this could account for things, so he checked that I didn't have any other accounts on the system. Apparently not. So then he took down the barcode number of the book itself and checked it on the system. It came up with the right book, but according to the system it is on the shelves, has no holds and no reservations.

Hmmm, very strange. Theory #1 is that when my card changed an error occured, so that instead of updating my lending details, my record was cleared and the books returned to circulation. But as all the cards were updated recently I would have thought that this problem was handled correctly. Theory #2 is that God, a sympathetic angel, the IT fairies, the space brothers (and sisters), or whatever, have been playing with my library account. My helpful and obliging colleague doesn't care. His advise was just to keep the book for as long as I need it and then drop it into the returns box.