UIUC Library Denies Police Report Sex Offender Lived There
Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 11/17/2008
- Police says man was living in library
- Library says security guard offered mistaken info
- Actions, not presence, violated library policies
| Go back to the Academic Newswire for more stories |
Was a convicted sex offender living in the Undergraduate Library of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, which is open 24 hours most of the week? According to a November 14 News-Gazette article quoting a campus police lieutenant: yes. But library officials say the lieutenant was relying on mistaken information. (Update November 18: the police now say they weren't sure.)
The original article quoted Lt. Roy Acree, who said 21-year-old Eric J. Kaminski was discovered at about 2:30 a.m. Thursday at the library. Library security officials, Acree said, thought Kaminski had been living behind movable bookshelves; he said it was not uncommon for homeless people to use campus buildings. Searching Kaminski, police found a folding knife with a three-inch blade and a sex offender registration form.
Library says conclusion was mistaken
The library, however, had no evidence that Kaminski was living in the library. A security guard's misunderstanding was communicated to the arresting officer, Associate University Librarian Scott Walter told LJ. “It... should have been checked by campus police through normal Library Security channels prior to being printed.”
He noted that the library’s Patron Conduct Policy prohibits users from bringing bedding materials or weapons into the library; weapons violate a campus policy, as well.
“The Undergraduate Library is open 24/5, and, thus, 2:30 am on the date in question was a time when the Library was open," Walter said. "We do not monitor patron activity to such a degree that we can report what an individual patron may have been doing during a visit to one of our libraries. The individual's presence in the Library was not a violation of our policy, his actions were—immediately upon recognizing the nature of the individual's actions, e.g., storing a weapon in a Library, our guards addressed the situation.”.
“Library security guards patrol the building on a regular basis and twice a day the Undergraduate Library staff perform a head count so that we can assess the use of the library and its services,” added Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe, who heads the Undergraduate Library. “Because the individual was not living in the library, no policy changes have been necessitated.”
Read more Newswire stories:
SPARC Digital Repository Meeting Kicks Off Discussion of a "Disruptive" Future that Remains Largely Untapped
ALA/ARL Issues Guide to Google Settlement
Scan on Demand: Open Library and Boston Public Library Put a Twist on Scanning Projects
E-Reference Ratings
