Light-Fingered Bibliophiles

Library thefts soar, and security systems multiply

The plot sounds like an ultra-British detective story. A collection of rare books initially valued at about $2 million, including a 1638 edition of Galileo's Discorsi, disappear from London's University College Library. A "Dr. French" approaches Quaritch's, a rare book dealer in London, with about 20 books that he wants to trade for a medieval manuscript. Quaritch's notices tracings of University College Library stamps and alerts the library. About the same time, librarians checking on the volumes discover that padlocks on the appropriate cabinets have been changed. All told, about 267 books are missing. Scotland Yard and Interpol are called in.

Scene 2 takes place two weeks later in New York City. A man posing as a Princeton University professor offers the Discorsi and three other books to a New York bookseller for SI 1,000. Suspicious that such a rare book should just appear like that, the bookseller contacts authorities. Then, donning a bulletproof vest, he goes to lunch with the mysterious professor at the Princeton Club, ostensibly to consummate the deal. At the conclusion of the sale, undercover agents arrest Greek-born John Papanastassiou, 34, a Ph.D. candidate at Columbia University. At his Riverside Drive apartment, police cart off 95 more rare books and manuscripts, while Papanastassiou, in jail, insists that "the crux of the matter lies elsewhere." Most of the 267 missing books are still at large.

The Papanastassiou case is a dramatic example of a war being waged on libraries at a time when funds are short for all staffing, especially security. Stealing rare volumes is not new, but as prices have risen for all sorts of collector's items, the cash incentive has increased. Rare maps have disappeared from Yale University's Sterling Memorial Library. Two years ago, California State University at Long Beach found that 27 volumes of early editions of Captain James Cook's Voyages of Discovery, valued at $30,000, had vanished. At the University of California at Riverside, an instructor was arrested two years ago for making off with 10,500 books, valued at $440,000, over a period of years. Another common prey: 19th century periodicals and plates that can be cut from old books.

Libraries everywhere have had to divert money for maintaining and improving collections into increased security. The Chicago Public Library, where from 1979 to 1981 thieves took a $2 million bite out of a $120 million collection, is installing a $1.7 million computerized circulation-control system, which will ensure that anyone with an overdue book will not be permitted to borrow further. An electronic device at the University of Pennsylvania has reduced losses by 39% and paid for itself in 38 months. In DeKalb County, Ga., a protection system has cut losses at one high school library from 346 volumes to 22 in two years.

Most electronic security systems include the use of "Tattle Tape," a sensitive strip concealed in bindings that sets off an alarm if it is smuggled past a checkpoint.

In most libraries, rare books may now be used only when a curator is present, often only under video surveillance. At the Library of Congress, 158 uniformed police have been protecting the stacks and making personal property checks as patrons leave. No known thefts occurred last year.

Furthermore, a New York computer service that registers missing books and manuscripts should make it harder for thieves to sell stolen books.

Tight security raises a key question:

Does too much protection defeat the purposes of a public library--easy access and scholarly research? Princeton University last week declared that because of thefts, after 33 years of unlimited access, its library may be closed next year to everyone except students and faculty. Most librarians, however, try to combine limited security measures with a public awareness campaign. In Atlanta, theft from the city's 350,000-volume main library dwindled noticeably after the city began publicizing its new detection system. qed

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