On Campus
Libraries on lookout for thieves

By Alice Keesing
Advertiser Staff Writer

Books come and go from Hawai'i's libraries, but there are some that never come back.

Light-fingered patrons are an unfortunate fact of life for librarians, which have to contend with a stream of books going out the door, never to return.

At Manoa library, for example, as many as 300 books can go missing in a year, according to Lynn Masumoto of the state public library. Some do turn up eventually, once the reader is done with them, but most remain missing in action.

A national survey by the American Library Association found a pattern in the types of books that disappear. Most likely to go AWOL are books on witchcraft, the occult, dreams, astrology, exam preparation and car repair.

The ALA presumes the commonality is that these subjects all call for extensive practice at home, exceeding the usual check-out period.

The Hawai'i State Public Library System recently prepared a report for the Board of Education on what it would take to install electronic theft-loss systems in all 50 public libraries. Twenty-two libraries already have the electronic gates, which are activated if the sensitized "target" in the book is not deactivated at the circulation desk. The board wanted to know what it would take to outfit the remaining libraries.

The upshot was that many of the libraries just don't have enough space for the electronic gates. Four are lucky enough not to have a major theft problem. And with electronic systems costing at least $11,000 a pop, it just may not be cost-effective for some of Hawai'i's libraries, which already are tightening their belts because of stringent budget cuts.

And despite the electronic gates, thieves still come up with creative ways to get around the security.

They hold books above or below the detector fields. They conduct "inside jobs" using a staff accomplice. Some throw materials out of windows for later retrieval. Others mutilate or remove the targets from the books.

One patron who had a penchant for stealing videos would hide the case — which contained the target — in a loose ceiling tile in the men's bathroom, then walk out with the tape. The library combated that by tagging the tape rather than the cases, said state librarian Virginia Lowell.

Librarians obviously would rather not have to deal with pilfering patrons, but do what they can to minimize the damage, said Lowell. In some ways the thefts become a part of the "weeding" system of replacing old books with new ones, she said.

Then again, libraries always could borrow a page from monks of the Middle Ages, who obviously had their own share of book bandits. They chained their books in place or inscribed curses on them to deter thieves.