Review Article Library Progress (International). Vol. 37 No.1 2017: P.135-141 Print version ISSN 0970 1052 Online version ISSN 2320 317X DOI 10.5958/2320-317X.2017.00014.9
THEFT AND VANDALISM IN ACADEMIC LIBRARY(S)
Sanjeev Dutt Sharma
Abstract
The most common problem in any academic library is that important pages are either torn or mutilated and books being stolen by its users. Users do not care about the borrowed books and keep underscoring, marking the important points, and dog-earing pages. Sometimes they also tear out the pages or even entire chapters before returning them to the library. This paper deals with the problem of theft and vandalism in academic libraries. The main focus of this paper is on the reasons for theft and vandalism and it also proposes the necessary measures to stop or reduce this problem in the Academic Libraries.
Keywords: Library Theft, Library Vandalism, Academic Library, Library Management, Book Theft, Book Theft and Vandalism
INTRODUCTION
Since the ancient times, India has been a centre of excellence in the field of higher education. Nalanda, Vikramashila and Takshashila were few of the oldest universities in the world and were the most renowned seats of higher learning during their time. Nalanda University was a centre of learning from the fifth century CE to 120 CE. Nalanda flourished under the patronage of the Gupta Empire in the 5th and 6th centuries and later under the Harsha, the emperor of Kannauj. The liberal cultural traditions inherited from the Gupta age resulted in a period of growth and prosperity until the ninth century. The subsequent centuries were a time of gradual decline, a period during which the tantric developments of Buddhism became most pronounced in Eastern India under the Pala Empire. At its peak, Nalanda University attracted the scholars and students from far off countries i.e. Tibet, China, Korea and Central Asia etc. Nalanda University was destroyed in 1200 CE by Bakhtiyar Khilji and the manuscripts and other reading materials were burnt in the process. India has a glorious past in imparting education and libraries played a very important role in this. At present as a developing nation, it places a large emphasis on higher education. Hence, it has a large number of Colleges and Universities as centers of learning.
HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS IN INDIA
As per the University Grants Commission’s report, 656 Universities and more than 21000 colleges are imparting higher education to the students in India as on 22nd February, 2017. Out of the 789 Universities, 359 are State Universities (funded by the State Governments), 123 are Deemed Universities (a status of autonomy granted to high-performing institutes), 260 are
Author’s Affiliation: Librarian, Hindu College, University of Delhi, Delhi – 110007, India.
Corresponding Author: Sanjeev Dutt Sharma, Librarian, Hindu College, University of Delhi, Delhi – 110007, India. Email: [email protected]
Received on 08.06.2017, Accepted on 16.06.2017
Sanjeev Dutt Sharma / Theft and Vandalism in Academic Library(S)
Private Universities (run by the Private Sector) and 47 are Central Universities (funded by Central Government of India)
HINDU COLLEGE
The Hindu College is recognized as one of the premier academic institutions in India. Hindu College was founded more than a century ago in 1899, by Late Shri Krishan Dass ji Gurwale. It started functioning in a building in Kinari Bazar, Chandni Chowk, Delhi and it was affiliated to the Punjab University, as there was no University of Delhi at the time. University of Delhi was established in 1922 and Hindu College became one of the constituent colleges of University of Delhi. As the college grew, it faced a major crisis due to inadequate infrastructure and in 1902 was shifted to Kashmere Gate, Delhi, thereby enabling it to function there till 1953 when it moved to its present location in the University of Delhi (North Campus).
The Hindu College has seen remarkable growth over the years. And, today it is not only one of the oldest institution of India it is also one of the most distinguished graduate and postgraduate co-educational institution in India. It offers a number of courses in the field of Science, Humanities and the Social Science streams.
HINDU COLLEGE LIBRARY
The history of Hindu College Library is as old as that of the college. In the past 118 years the Hindu College Library has progressed tremendously along with the college. It has a separate building. Its initial membership consisted of 13 students and 5 teachers and now it has shot up to 3500 inclusive of students, teachers and non teaching staff with a collection of more than 100000 volumes.
“The book theft is identified as most common crime in libraries and it is increasing by the year”
THEFT EXPERIENCES IN HINDU COLLEGE LIBRARY
Case One:
In the academic session 2002-2003, library staff caught a final year undergraduate male student of Political Science. This case is very special as the student was the topper in previous academic sessions. This came to our notice when a staff member who was deputed at the check point came to me with the student and a book.
On a cursory look there was no problem with the book as it was issued properly as per our system, i.e. there was a date stamp on the due date slip and the initials of the circulation staff member were also there. Hence, nothing was wrong with the book, the reason for doubt of the check point staff was that the initials on the due date slip did not match with those of the circulation staff.
When we questioned the student about this, he told us about method he had devised to take away books from the library without getting them issued properly. The modus-operandi was to use his own duplicate date stamp and the forged initials of the circulation staff. He put the due date on the due date slip with the duplicate date stamp and forged the initials of the circulation staff on the books he required and in this way he used to take away books from the library.
After initial counseling, he confessed his act and declared that he has ten more books of the library procured using the same fraudulent means. When asked why he was doing this, he
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replied that: he needed more books for his studies in comparison to the loan privilege granted by the college library and this was done to facilitate his studies. He apologized for this act and returned all the books which were taken away from the library without getting them issued in the proper manner. This student was later selected in an elite service in India.
Case Two:
It was a unique case of book theft, as we were finding only the bounded book jackets almost every alternate day on the shelves while shelving the books in physics section of the stack hall while the original books inside them were missing. Staff brought this in my notice about the vandalism in the library. We made a team of two people for that section and instructed them for extra alertness as we wanted to catch the miscreant red handed. This incident took place in the academic session, 2008-2009. We finally caught a First year Post Graduate female student of Physics indulging in this vandalism.
This again was a student who had scored more than 70% marks in her semester exams. She was caught red handed by a staff member who was deputed in stack area when she was hiding a book in her clothes. He immediately informed the female staff of the library available at the check point to frisk her properly. When she came to the check point, the staff duly frisked her and found a book in her clothes.
After questioning, she admitted her mistake and confessed that she had taken away physics books from the library. Ultimately, she replaced all the eight titles with the latest edition. When asked why she was doing this, her reply was that her financial condition was not very sound still she needed more books for her studies but could not afford to buy all the books from the market. She apologized profusely for this act.
Reasons for Book Theft and Vandalism in libraries
Cut Throat Competition
Every student wants to be placed in a nice job after their studies. India being a developing country with low employment ratio and with burgeoning unemployment problem, every student is locked in a cut-throat competition to prove them-selves to be the best in their studies. Hence sometimes they indulge in such unfair practices as outlined above.
Pressure for Academic Success
There is a lot of parental pressure and social expectation involved in forcing the students to commit such acts as they think they require more books to perform better in their examinations.
Maintaining the Higher Position among the students
Students who performed brilliantly in their earlier examinations always want to maintain their performance and hence, require more study materials. This often forces their hand and they commit such acts.
Lure of Recognition
Toppers are always feted and felicitated by the college which adds to their reputation and respect among the peer-group. This added pressure to perform leads them to commit the acts of theft and vandalism to stay at the top.
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Financial Problems
India is a developing country, the per capita income is not very high and parents are barely able to afford the cost of higher education. One of the demands of the higher education is to research from various sources including variety of books. Due to the financial constraints, students cannot afford all the books. Hence they are forced to indulge in such acts.
Insufficient Loan Privileges
The loan privileges are decided by the library to maintain the balance between the needs of the users and the available books in the Library. Hence the number of books that can be issued per student and the time period for which they can be issued is limited. Sometime this method is not suitable for some students who need more books and for the longer period of time. This mismatch leads to such incidents in the Library.
Library is a soft target for good picking
There is a perception among many users that the library is a ‘soft target’ with ‘good picking’ and a relatively low possibility of getting caught. That is why some students start book theft and vandalize books by tearing important chapters from them.
Book theft is not a crime
It is a view of most of the students that book theft is only an ‘academic crime’ rather than a ‘real crime’ with this view they indulge in theft and think that if they are caught they can easily escape by paying some fine or with cancellation of their library facilities for some time or for the entire semester/session.
Limited Hours of Opening and Closing
Most of the libraries work for 5 to 6 days in a week from 9.00 am to 5.00 pm. This limitation is a biggest barrier for the readers who want to study for longer hours in the library. Hence they take away books without getting them issued properly or pull out the important pages/chapter from the book.
Inadequate Infrastructure and Manpower
In the developing countries like India, the enrolled number of students in any institution is always very high. Most libraries in India have a single issue/return counter. When the students come to the library and find long queues on the issue-return counter they tend to save their time by stealing or plucking out important chapters from the book.
Some Important Steps for Reducing Book Theft and Vandalism
Steps for reducing theft and vandalism in library can be further sub-divided into (a) In House established Practices and (b) Technological, depending on the needs and means of the given library.
In-House established Practices:
Right to Entry in the Library
Academic Library(s) should be open only for the bona-fide users. Entry in the library should be strictly on the basis of verification of the identity card issued by the library or the college/institution. There should be a staff/guard deputed on the entrance gate and he/she
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must check users’ identity card before their entry to the library and also keep a log of the same in the entry register.
Alertness/carefulness
Staff deputed in different sections of the library i.e. reading room, stacks area, stair case between the floors and passages etc, should be more careful, alert and should take rounds of the library to check and keep an eye on the user(s) to minimize the risk of theft and vandalism.
Orientation Programme
Library(s) should organize the Orientation Programme for the newly admitted students to introduce them to the library and its rules. There are few important things we can tell to the newly admitted students, like: a) Location of the books and how to find their desired books. b) Different sections of the Library c) General rules regarding the loan privileges and how to take care of the borrowed books. d) We can show them the torn and vandalized books on the shelves. And hence, impress upon them the fact that how an act like this by the previous batch can jeopardize the academic future of the current batch. e) Another important thing we can tell the students is that if they face any problem in the library they can contact the library staff or Librarian without any hesitation instead of indulging in such acts like stealing and vandalism.
Checking the Users’ requirement(s)
It is very essential for library authorities to frequently review the library requirements of the students. Timely feedback about the loan privilege facility, time period of the book loan and library hours etc. For this library authorities should meet with different group of users to know about their expectations from the library.
Extended Library Hours
Usually, academic libraries in India function within the official hours and during week days only, i.e. 8.30 AM to 5.00 PM, Monday to Friday/Saturday. This is again a cause of theft and vandalism of books. The working hours should be increased during weekdays from 8.30 AM to 8.00 PM and also from 8.30 AM to 5.00 PM on weekends, so that students have more time in the library for their studies.
Short loan facility
Normally in the libraries some books/resource material are marked “For Consultation only” and are not available for loan, such books can be issued for a short period like for overnight or for weekends. To provide equal opportunity to the users who need the same book or a resource material, libraries can devise a method of the short loan system. The short loan system properly allocates borrowing time of any book or resource material to all borrowers, and works on a first-come-first-served basis. Unlike regular circulation type of books, short loan books are for overnight, weekends, holidays or for two-day use at the most.
Photocopy facility
Photocopy facility should be available in and/or around library on a reasonable price, so that users can get their desired piece of information from the books and get them Xeroxed. This will certainly reduce the vandalism and theft of the chapters from the books.
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Stock verification
It is the most effective method to monitor the loss. Libraries having lesser collection can easily perform the stock verification process and identify the missing items from their collection. In bigger libraries with large collection stock verification is really difficult, labor-intensive and time taking process. Hence, to keep tabs on the losses, sample stock verification can be done every year and a complete verification is recommended, as per government norms, every 3-5 years.
Rules and regulations
Every library should have written rules and regulations and the rules and regulations regarding book theft should be displayed at prominent places in the library. The Displays should have the following messages/warnings:
1. You are under CCTV Surveillance. 2. Name of the miscreant (s) will be displayed on the Notice Board of the Library/Institution. 3. Win a free ride in a police car just by lifting books from this library.
Deployment of Modern Technology
Closed Circuit Television (CCTV)
Closed circuit television can be installed in reading hall(s), Stack Hall(s) and other places of the library where the possibility of theft/vandalism is relatively high. CCTV acts as a deterrent and the recording facility can be helpful after an incident has happened. CCTV installation has psychological impact on the users as they are constantly aware that someone is watching them.
Electromagnetic Tapes (Tattle-Tapes) Security Stripes
There are three components in this security system 1. Tattle Tapes are thin magnetic stripes that can be placed inside the book(s), magazine(s), newspapers etc. 2. Sensitizer/Desensitizer: It is hardware which sensitizes and desensitizes the library resources for check out. 3. Detection Point: A detection system is usually placed at entrance of the library.
When any sensitized library resource passes through this gate it raises an alarm.
How tattle-tape security system works
Tattle tapes are placed inside the book(s), magazine(s) etc. When user wants to get book issued, the person available on the circulation desk, desensitized the required book and issues the book to the user. Only desensitized book(s) can be passed through the detection gate. Any book which is not desensitized cannot pass through the detection gate. At the time of the book return, the book is again sensitized by the person available on the circulation desk.
This security system can prevent book theft but still there are chances of vandalism of the books as user can tear the pages/chapter from the books. Some time theft is also possible if a user tears the page on which the tattle tape were placed but it is a very rare condition as tattle tape strips are transparent and once placed in the book/magazine, they cannot be traced by the users easily. It is always better to place the strips on a random page rather than on a fixed number of page.
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RFID (Radio Frequency Identification)
An RFID tag is fixed in each and every book and reading material of the library and complete book information is entered into the software installed in server or workstation. The RFID tag contains the identifying information of the books or reading material. Now whenever user brings the book for issue-return purpose, the RFID reader from the tag reads the information pertaining to that book and transmits the data into the software and books is smoothly issued in a few seconds with a minimal manual intervention. As the user takes the book outside the library, the antenna placed at the exit gate automatically reads the information contained on the RFID tag to verify whether the book is properly issued or not. In cases where the book is not issued to the member as per library norms or it is being stolen from the library the antenna senses it and creates an instant alert.
RFID system can prevent book theft but the chances of book vandalism still remain.
CONCLUSION
Academic libraries in India face the financial problems in implementing the latest security measures i.e. CCTV, Electromagnetic Tapes (Tattle Tapes), Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) or the combination of the EM+RFID. As all these technologies are very expensive and hence, beyond the means of most of the academic libraries. Still academic libraries can reduce the theft and vandalism with the help of the combinations of steps given above without incurring any extra cost.
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