[MSN] Libraries increase security. Recent thefts of rare maps prompt extensive study of libraries' security measures.

[Museum Security Network Mailinglist]

Libraries increase security 
Recent thefts of rare maps prompt extensive study of libraries' security
measures 
By Steven Siegel

Staff reporter



Two months after an antique map dealer was sentenced to three-and-a-half
years in federal prison for stealing millions of dollars worth of rare maps,
including 20 from Yale, the University is preparing a series of new library
security measures. 

The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library - where E. Forbes Smiley III's
thefts were first discovered in June 2005 - will beef up security after
three reviews conducted this semester, library administrators said. A
separate security assessment of the full library system wrapped up in June,
and administrators said they are now considering its recommendations. The
Smiley case has also served as a catalyst for change beyond Yale, as
libraries across the world are increasingly publicizing thefts that
previously would have been kept quiet. 

Smiley's thefts are not the most recent at Beinecke. An 1890 letter by
"Alice in Wonderland" author Lewis Carroll that was part of Beinecke's
holdings - which include 26 handwritten letters from Carroll, the pen name
of Charles Dodgson, turned up on eBay earlier this year, the Hartford
Courant reported Sunday. A collector in Utah had purchased the letter, and
he returned it to Yale after hearing it belonged to the University. 

University Librarian Alice Prochaska said the incidents have led the
administration to fill the gaps in the security system. 

"It's not that there were no precautions over the years, but whenever
there's an event like this, it makes the organization that was affected by
the crime look at how to prevent it from happening again," she said. 

The security procedures at Beinecke were studied in two reviews by external
security experts, Frank Turner, the library's director, said. The University
also conducted an internal review. 

Based on these groups' recommendations, the library's reading rooms will now
be videotaped at all times, Turner said. Video cameras were in place but not
on when a Beinecke librarian first noticed an X-acto knife blade left by
Smiley on the reading room floor, according to a June 2005 Yale Police
Department affidavit. In addition, Turner said, the library plans to install
a new, more extensive camera system. 

The library will also expand its manuscript cataloguing unit, which will
allow it to keep better track of its holdings. Turner said the unit will
nearly double in size in an effort to alleviate the backlog of uncataloged
materials. 

Last winter, the Sterling and Beinecke libraries inventoried their
collection of more than 300,000 maps and found 78 maps missing beyond those
Smiley is known to have stolen. Prochaska said most of the maps Smiley took
have been recovered, and a few of the additional maps thought to be missing
have turned up elsewhere in the library system. 

"Some of the materials have turned out not to be stolen at all, but
misplaced," she said. 

Still, the vast majority of the 78 maps remain missing, Prochaska said. 

Besides cataloguing the rare maps, University libraries have taken a close
look at procedures across the system. A security committee composed of
representatives from the libraries and art galleries was set up last fall
and reported its recommendations last February. It then conducted a physical
audit of the University's collections that ended in June. 

The committee's suggestions included establishing clear lines of
communication for reporting suspicious behavior and keeping exact records of
who has seen specific rare materials. 

"For the most part we have [kept such records], but we make sure we're
broadening the scope to include more collections," Prochaska said. 

The full set of recommendations will not be implemented until the
University-wide review of security procedures is complete and related costs
have been determined, she said. 

Research libraries often make changes to physical security measures after a
major theft, said Richard Oram, chair of the security committee of the Rare
Books and Manuscripts Section of the American Library Association. Planned
renovations to reading rooms are also opportunities to add cameras, key
cards and other theft prevention systems, but these improvements are costly,
he said. 

"All libraries are strapped for cash," Oram said. "Sometimes security is low
on the priority list." 

Libraries are becoming more likely to publicize thefts than ever before,
Everett Wilkie, former chair of the ALA security committee, said. 

"Libraries don't try to cover it up like they used to," Wilkie said. "The
embarrassment of having a theft has been overridden by the need to stop
these people." 

Prochaska said Yale was the one of the first libraries victimized by Smiley
to publish a list of missing maps - which was sent to private dealers and
posted online - and other libraries have followed suit. Making thefts known
is now considered a good practice, she said, and dealers and collectors have
a place to look to verify that the items they purchase are not missing from
a library's holdings. 

But some said libraries could do more to discourage theft, such as
displaying reproductions rather than making the originals available. 

"There's no reason for people to see the rare materials," map dealer W.
Graham Arader III '73 said. "It should just not be available for people to
hurt or steal."

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