A story from Gothenburg has gone viral in Sweden after the city’s public library accidentally left one of its doors unlocked on a day when it was supposed to be closed – with staff returning only to find that more than 400 people had visited the library and borrowed 245 books.

All Saints’ Day, this year on November 4th, is a public holiday in Sweden, but as the library is normally open on Saturdays and most Swedes don’t really observe All Saints, visitors simply hadn’t understood that the library was closed when they were able to get in through the door.

The library’s head of operations, Anna Carin Elf, told public radio broadcaster P4 Göteborg that people were behaving as normal when she was alerted to the mistake and arrived at the library.

Some were reading newspapers, families were in the children’s area, and some were looking up books on the computers. She said some did express surprise that the library seemed unusually empty (due to the lack of staff).

“Nothing was destroyed. It’s amazing that Gothenburgers enter an empty library and treat it so lovingly,” said Elf.

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