You can learn something about students from a visit to the Ladd Library lost and found.

For one thing, says Connie Mulane of the circulation desk, you can tell that the library “is their home,” a place where they study, hang out, and spend lots of time.

And lose stuff.

A few of the items in the Ladd Library lost and found box on Nov. 21, 2017. (Jay Burns/Bates College)

Here’s a partial catalog — not including various pullovers, mugs, and water bottles — of items seen today.

  • Class notebook with notes about the 1973 Wounded Knee incident.
  • Swim goggles.
  • Knit winter cap embroidered with “Two Door Cinema Club,” an indie rock band from Northern Ireland.
  • North Face knit winter cap.
  • Plastic bottle of Zicam cold relief pills.
  • Well-used Texas Instruments TI-84 Plus graphics calculator.
  • Two rings, one taped to a piece of paper with these words: “Found in the bus stop, 10/08/17.”
  • Photocopied article, “A Reinterpretation of Aristotle’s Notion of Rhetorical Form,” by Craig R. Smith, published in The Western Journal of Speech Communication, Winter 1979.
  • Assorted USB/AC power adaptors.
  • Funky and crafty wood bracelet.
  • Almay concealer.
  • Copy of the novella Doña Berta by Spanish novelist Leopoldo Alas, edited by Senior Lecturer in European Studies David R. George Jr.