Low-tech Responses Stem Major Thefts at MI Library
-- Library Journal, 11/15/2005
After losing some 4000 CDs and DVDs valued at some $92,000 (including processing) over five years, the Clinton Macomb Public Library, MI, has taken new steps to stem the thefts. In November 2004, reported acting director Larry Neal, a library patron noticed materials, with library markings at a local GameStop, which sells used discs. The library's Celeste Choate, head of the popular materials department, found dozens of library CDs and DVDs at GameStops in the area. The library discovered that the RFID (radio frequency identification) "donut" tag on the disc could be easily peeled off, and that some cases for the discs diminished the tag's effectiveness.
The library also checked the names on the logs of people selling to GameStop, and discovered that some were library patrons who apparently were putting holds on DVDs, picking them up off the hold shelf, and stealing them rather than checking them out. The library got police to file charges in at least six municipalities, including one person suspected of taking nearly 700 items. Two people have pled guilty so far. Given that the library didn't want to require staffers to handle the media, staffers adopted two solutions. One is to use a piece of laminate to cover the tag that had been peeling off. Also, the library started using permanent ink to identify the discs as library materials, and placing a 15-item limit on checkouts. The 4000 discs lost represent about one-sixth of the library's 24,000-item collection of CDs and DVDs. Thefts have since plummeted. Neal observed, "Our local police were very helpful. GameStop local employees were not helpful. All had the same response of 'how are we supposed to know that they were stolen?' GameStop corporate offices have been pretty helpful."
