The Return of Gilbert Bland (and other comments on library thievery)

Several years ago, the book The Island of Lost Maps described in fascinating detail how an otherwise unremarkable antiquarian map dealer with the improbably appropriate name of Gilbert Bland sliced and smuggled his way to infamy by stealing hundreds of rare maps from atlases and other books found in the rare-books departments of libraries across the country. In the appendix to that book, the author expressed the hope that Bland's depredations would prompt libraries housing such collections to improve their security. Because the thieves won't stop coming just because one of them gets caught. Witness the recent capture of a "respected antiquarian dealer" who seems to have acquired the bulk of his inventory by stealing it in exactly the same fashion as Bland did.

Recently, a library at which I work lost an extremely expensive reference book when a thief simply requested it at the reference desk and then blithely waltzed out the door with it. The library does not require users of such materials to check them out or sign in or leave any ID at the desk while using them, and it's an open secret that the impressive-looking book-detectors at the public entrance are impotent scarecrows that are never turned on. Once the thieves figure this out, it becomes very expensive to run a library.

Moral of the story: If your library has anything in it that is worth stealing, keep it under lock and key, because no matter how innocuous they look, some of your patrons are thieving scum who will steal anything that's not bolted down.