The Fairfax County Public Library (FCPL) recently issued a library card to a baby still in its mother’s womb.

According to an article in the July 2000 Golden Gazette, the card was registered to "Baby Young" and presented to the mother at a baby shower by the baby’s paternal grandmother, Louise Young of Rochester, NY. She contacted the library after seeing a news item on the FCPL’s “Millennium Baby” project which gave a library card and a book to the first 5,000 babies born in Inova hospitals this year.

"Although the Fairfax County Public Library has no minimum age for obtaining a card, this is the youngest person I have ever registered," said Sharon Scott, the Library’s Circulation Manager. "As far as I know, it is the first issued to a child before its birth."

Published in VSHL Lifesaver, August 2000