Very overdue: A copy of The Dunwich Horror and others was due back at Wellington Library on February 22, 1988.

One Wellington bookworm may not want to come forward to collect this reader's award.

A Wellington borrower is holding the record for the longest overdue book, 23 years.

The Dunwich Horror and others, by H. P. Lovecraft, was due to be returned to Wellington library on February 12, 1988.

The book is a collection of fantasy, horror and sci-fi short stories, first published in 1963.

Items which are overdue by 28 days or more are classified as long-term overdue books.

It is at this point they stop incurring overdue fines. A maximum of $22.40, at 80 cents day, can be charged to an adults library card for an overdue item.

If the 80 cent per day fine was applied to The Dunwich Horror and others, the borrower would owe $6851.20.

Wellington Libraries manager Jane Hill said about 20,000 borrowers incurred fines in the year ending June 31.

The total value of fines collected was $929,170.

The largest fine incurred by a borrower last year was $957.50.

Ms Hill said the average fine incurred by a borrower was $20.

The money gathered from the collection of fines is put back into Wellington City Council consolidated funds.

About 13,500 items fall into the long-term overdue category and 6255 customers owe about $285,000 in fines. Of the overdue items, 10,310 are books.

Ms Hill said the library did not hold book amnesties.

"We have found in the past that books returned are largely very old and not ones we want," she said.

However, she said debt collectors were used to help recover fines.

Wellington Library has 618,978 books, 135,101 newspapers and magazines, 33,762 DVDs, 53,659 CDs and 14633 other items.