The information generated by the survey complements the deliberations of the conference which was held in September The results of the survey will be of interest to library administrators, the Oberlin Conference participants, and others concerned with security of library collections.
In the s many libraries began to develop written plans for emergency response to lifethreatening and collection-threatening situations. Conservation programs, improved fire-detection and fire-fighting systems, evacuation procedures, and water-damage procedures have now been dealt with by many libraries. Security planning to protect against theft and, particularly, to deal with theft once it has occurred, has generally lagged behind disaster planning.
There are undoubtedly numerous reasons for the slow development of security plans. Among the more important are a general lack of awareness of the significance of library theft and its impact on the integrity of library collections and services.
There are still no adequate means of monitoring loss rates, and most libraries are unwilling or unable within present budgets to support systematic inventories. The open-plan library buildings most common in North American libraries work against sound access control, and the monitoring of the use of collections in such buildings is extremely difficult.
Perhaps another factor working against development of security plans is that most librarians would prefer not to deal with the distasteful topic of theft. There is some evidence of improvement in library security. Recent large-scale book thefts have generated significant international notoriety, and that works to the advantage of librarians in developing good security plans.
Katharine Leab and Daniel J. Leab, publishers of American Rook Prices Current, recognizing the significance of centralized information about book theft, have developed an online, computer-based information service for reporting stolen or missing books and manuscripts the service is Bookline Alert: Missing Books and Manuscripts, or BAMBAM.
The Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America, constantly mindful of the financial impact of book theft, has published a pamphlet on how to deal with book theft.
Unlike bar codes, which need to be scanned manually and read individually, radio ID tags do not require line-of-sight for reading. Multiple tags can be read simultaneously, through packaging or book covers. With radio ID tags, librarians can automate check-ins and returns. Patrons can speed through self-checkout without any assistance or ever even opening a book.
An RFID tag can be read from just inches away, so librarians can simply wave a wireless wand while walking through stacks to record what books are on the shelves. The hand-held unit reads the chips and stores data that can be downloaded into the library's circulation system.
Book Theft. The book collection signifies the taste and status of the collector, even if they haven't actually read them. For these thieves , rare books trigger a compulsive hoarding instinct for expensive volumes. Rather than being primarily motivated by profit, their aim is to accumulate more books. In addition to thieves who pursue the book itself as a valuable item, more profit-driven thieves are often interested in the component parts that make up a valuable book.
These thieves are more likely to remove and sell the valuable plates, maps, illuminations, or even covering boards, because these smaller components are easier to steal than the whole book.
Selling book parts individually can also help circumvent questions of provenance, making them easier to sell off quickly. These are by no means the only types of book thieves, but these tend to be two strategies and motivations seen the most in thefts from library special collections. What makes libraries vulnerable.
Libraries are particularly vulnerable, as they are fairly relaxed environments in terms of security, even in special collection spaces. This has recently started to change, but even now reading rooms have weaknesses inherent to the nature of a working library. For example, in a museum people are encouraged to stand away from the art, forbidden to touch it, and expected to move through fairly quickly.
In libraries, readers are given hours of time to handle and examine books. This makes it easy to just put a book under your jacket and leave.
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