THE CASE OF THE DISAPPEARING LIBRARY BOOKS

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During the last decade, the preservation of library materials has become an issue of high priority for many librarians. Concern for the safe-keeping of information sources in all formats, and an understanding of the factors which might lead to their loss or decay, is now an essential component of any librarian's job. Micrographic and computer technologies have made considerable advances over this period as efficient means of maintaining backup copies of originals. However, they have not proved to be the panacea against decaying paper and celluloid, as was once hoped. At the same time, the relative cost of new library materials has continued to rise, and the number of items published continues to grow far more quickly than the budgets available for their purchase. Librarians have therefore been forced to get the maximum life and use from the materials they are able to purchase.

In the final analysis, almost any library, archive or documentation unit exists for the purpose of exploiting and disseminating the information stored within its collections. Except in those relatively few instances where the book or manuscript becomes a work of art, or a museum artefact. It is the information stored within library and archive materials that gives to them any value and makes them worth keeping. If this information is not available for study or use, then the storage medium becomes so much waste paper, film or magnetic tape. Thus, the principal role of the library conflicts with the best interests of preservation. The information worker has to balance the requirement of making material readily available for use with the needs of securing and preserving it for future use.

This task can be served in different ways depending upon various circumstances - such as the immediate and long-term needs of clientele, the type of material being stored, and the function for which the unit was established. For example, the school librarian's task may involve making books and other information materials as freely available to users @s possible, with few restrictions or formalities, in order to encourage their use. In a national library or research collection, it may mean placing restrictions on access to rare or valuable items, as a means of ensuring that they will at least survive for the use of future generations. In extreme cases, archivists have to deny access to items that are fragile, until they may be made good. It is hardly promoting the cause of the dissemination of information to make unique items so readily available that they do not survive for the benefit of future generations.

There are several different aspects to the preservation of library materials. First, there is the essential task of the prevention or postponement of the natural forces of decay or day-to-day wear, through good housekeeping, controlling atmospheric conditions, undertaking programmes of repair and rebinding, or de-acidification of paper. Second, the problem will involve taking reasonable precautions against natural or man-made disasters such as fire or flood, and having contingency plans to minimize the damage should they occur. Finally, the preservation of library materials will involve issues of security - the protection of stock from deliberate theft and mutilation.

The former of these is by far the most visible problem, for nobody who works with printed or photographic documents can fail to notice the ravages of time on paper and bindings or on nitrate-based film. Some thought has also been given to emergency planning, and on those occasions when there have been major disasters involving library collections they have received plenty of publicity. Far less attention has, however, been paid to the third aspect of preservation. There have been a number of important British initiatives involving the preservation of library materials, particularly following the publication of the Ratcliffe Report (Ratcliffe, 1984). However, so far more attention has been paid to issues such as prevention of decay, and emergency planning, than to preventing book theft. It is only during the last few years that librarians in the United Kingdom have begun to take this last issue seriously.

Missing books are, by their nature, not visible, and just because an item is not in its correct place on the shelf, and cannot be found, does not automatically mean it has been stolen. Librarians are human, and the circulation and cataloguing systems they operate are subject to error. This may explain a tendency to ignore the whole issue of disappearing stock, and assume that the absence of an item was rather due to mis-shelving, or perhaps to the misfiling of a circulation record. Indeed, in many libraries it has only been after the introduction of computerized circulation and acquisition systems that the nature and extent of the problem has become apparent.

Yet it is without question that every year large numbers of items are systematically stolen from British libraries of all kinds. Even a conservative estimate of losses from libraries would give the annual cost of such crime at £60 million. with the true figure perhaps as much as £100 million, or even more (Jackson, 1990). Thefts on this scale in any other context would be regarded as a national scandal, yet the vast majority of these go unreported and unaccounted for. The public at large, and even some people in the library profession, do not even recognize that there is a problem.

One of the major achievements in UK preservation has been the establishment in 1984 of the British Library's National Preservation Office (NPO). This small unit has acted as an important agency coordinating work in this wide field, organizing conferences where librarians and other custodians can share experiences, as well as providing information and referral services. The NPO has regarded the provision of advice on good security practice as an essential part of its remit since 1988, following a seminar organized by the British Library in 1987 (after an internal review of their own security procedures). The meeting was informal and participants exchanged various horror stories, until the true extent of the problem began to be apparent to all concerned. Since that time publicizing the issue has been a matter of high priority. There have been further seminars on subjects related to library security organized by SCONUL in association with the NPO. The NPO also produced a series of posters and a video in 1990 in order to publicize the problem further.

In March 1991, the NPO organized the first-ever national conference on library security, sponsored, appropriately enough, by Municipal Mutual Insurance. Among the 114 delegates were representatives of librarians and archivists from all types of collection, police and crime prevention officers, representatives from the insurance industry, and those involved in selling security systems. The conference covered all aspects of library security, including the prevention of theft of users' property, and also the safety of staff, who might occasionally be victims of assault by their clientele. Inevitably, however, much of the discussion centred upon the protection of library collections from theft and vandalism, and how this might be done without sacrificing the essential role of the librarians in making information as freely available to potential users as possible.

One of the major difficulties in any discussion about thefts or vandalism in libraries is the lack of concrete information about the extent of the problem. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence of individual cases and from time to time prosecutions are reported by the news media or professional press. However, there has been little systematic research in this area, particularly in the United Kingdom, and there are no accurate statistics. Marie Jackson of the NPO gave a paper setting out the 'facts and figures' on library security, such as they are. She succeeded in demonstrating that we have a very incomplete picture of the nature and extent of such theft or damage, or the motives of those who perpetrate such acts. There is merely a widespread feeling that the problem is increasing, and that reported crimes are the tip of a very large iceberg.

Perhaps the most important issue was, however, highlighted in a paper by Dr Fred Ratcliffe. This concerned the need for a fundamental change in attitudes towards the theft of library materials. It is clear that librarians, their customers, the law enforcement agencies and society as a whole are not aware of the scale and seriousness of this problem. The deliberate and unauthorized removal of library materials is frequently not seen as a crime, but rather a contravention of some petty bureaucratic rule. Since many libraries exist to loan books, it does not seem a very serious matter to fail to return them afterwards. Taking a workshop manual for a car from a public library may not appear to be particularly important, but in essence, it is no different from the theft of the same item from a bookshop. or for that matter of a precious and irreplaceable incurable.

The sentences imposed on those convicted of stealing or damaging library books have often been very light, even when the cases were on a large scale and involved tens of thousands of pounds' worth of property. Some large-scale theft is, of course, compulsive book-collecting, and the criminals are in need of psychiatric help - such as the man in the United States who stole 21 000 books from libraries. is the deliberate pillaging of a for profit. The courts do not always reflect this difference.

Another problem is that the reporting of such cases by the media is often done in a semi-jocular way, frequently highlighting the oddity rather than the criminality of the cases. Occasionally the mere act of prosecution is portrayed in the media as being an act of petty bureaucracy, rather than a legitimate attempt to protect the interests of the community at large. The vandalism of public library books by the playwright Joe Orton in the 1960s is a case in point.

Stealing reading matter is also sometimes seen by society as being in some way less reprehensible than stealing other consumer goods, such as cassette tapes, or clothing. There have been instances where college tutors have acted as character witnesses for their students, and pleaded for leniency, in cases of systematic theft from the college library. Thus there are many similarities with society's attitude towards stealing from shops a few years ago, which was countered by a major advertising campaign to change opinions, reminding customers that 'shoplifting is theft'. The NPO is waging a similar campaign with its four posters on this subject - 'Inform on Norm', 'Don't steal, Neil', 'Foil Mrs Doyle' and 'Are you Hugh?' These certainly serve to encourage public awareness of the problem in a humorous and eye-catching way. Yet that facetiousness may be counterproductive in this situation, since it appears to undermine the seriousness of the subject.

Many librarians will also have to change their attitudes towards security, for the avoidable loss of between 2 and 8 per cent of their stock each year must be a dereliction of duty. Librarians responsible for all types of collections must first ensure that all their staff are aware of the extent of the problem and are taking all necessary action to counteract it. This involves knowing how many books are lost, what types of materials are most likely to go missing or be damaged, perhaps even what types of user are most likely to walk off with stock. Second, there must be a consistent and well-understood policy regarding how offenders are to be tackled, and if necessary, dealt with when caught. It is essential that this is not left to the interpretation of individual members of staff when it occurs. Many shops will automaticary prosecute shoplifters, irrespective of the circumstances or the value of the goods involved. This does not always make for good publicity, but on the other hand it does serve to act as a deterrent. If there is to be any leeway in decision not to prosecute, this should be exercised at a high level.

A great deal of theft is not planned but rather opportunist, and can be combated by careful planning and the introduction of systems which make it more difficult to walk off with items unchecked. There are plenty of book detection systems on the market, none of which is foolproof, and all are fairly costly. However, once the true cost of losses is taken into account - including acquisition and processing costs, and staff time spent looking for missing items-they become far more financially attractive. In any event, the mere existence of such a system will often act as a deterrent to the purely opportunist thief, although it is unlikely to discourage the professional. Therefore almost all such systems will live up to the general claim to reduce loss by 80 per cent. Once again, the library world could learn some useful lessons from the enormous fund of experience of the retail trade.

Not all losses are caused by customers, or by thieves breaking into a building; many thefts from libraries are undertaken by those employed within them. This is another area where there are marked similarities with the retail trade where stock 'shrinkage' due to staff pilfering has for long been recognized as a major problem. This may be a difficult idea for many 'professional' librarians to accept. Yet there is no reason why a librarian should be any more honest than members of any other group in society, and there are plenty of doctors and lawyers serving time who demonstrate that a professional qualification gives no immunity against dishonesty.

Library staff frequently are allowed to borrow materials informally, perhaps before they have been processed or given any marks of ownership. Staff also have the ability to evade any security measures that might be imposed, and so inevitably there will be temptations. There are also plenty of opportunities for fraud and corruption in the area of acquisitions unless rigorous financial procedures are maintained. One of the most celebrated recent cases of largescale theft and vandalism was the responsibility of a librarian, although not working in her own library.

The York conference also dealt with other issues relating to aspects of library security, including that of staff and the personal property of readers. There was a very useful account of the experiences of librarians in the United States, where this matter has been given more publicity and generally taken more seriously than in the United Kingdom. A change in attitude towards the theft of library materials does not mean that our libraries and record offices have to be turned into near fortresses, with video surveillance or plainclothed detectives prowling among the shelves. It just means realizing that such losses are a major problem that can be significantly reduced with a little thought and planning.

David Stoker

June 1991

(with acknowledgement to Marie Jackson of the National Preservation Office)

Jackson, Marie (1990) Please can we have our books back? LibraryAssociation Record, 92, (5), 359-363

Ratcliffe, F.W. (1984) Preservation policies and conservation in British libraries: report of the Cambridge University Library Project. London: British LibraryResearch and DevelopmentDepartment