ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


July/August 1 9 9 6 /4 2 7

Security upon m oving into
a new  lib ra ry  building

 

By P atricia A. Robles

How to protect your library’s 
materials against loss or theft

O n January 3, 1994, California State Uni­versity, Bakersfield (CSUB) opened its 
new $22 million library facility, the Walter W. 
Stiern Library. At 150,000 gross square feet on 
five floors, it is the largest building on the 
Bakersfield campus. Instructional Television 
(ITV) and Media Services are also located in 
this building. On the lower level there are six 
computer rooms equipped with more than 200 
microcomputers and printers available for stu­
dent use. The library is a modern electronic 
information center which includes a state-of- 
the-art electronic reference area. It is also ex­
tensively cabled for network access through­
out the building.

B ackground
The move into the newly built Stiern Library 
occurred during the fall quarter break in De­
cember 1993, since no classes were scheduled. 
Traffic is traditionally very light with few people 
on campus during this time. The goal was to 
have the library open and operational on the 
first day o f the winter quarter, January 3, 1994.

When the move began, the building was 
not yet completed. Various contractors were 
still working on such projects as installing shelv­
ing and the building’s telecommunications sys­
tems. Library  staff prepared for the move while 
other CSUB personnel moved items such as 
the equipment and furniture belonging to the 
Media Services and Computer Services offices 
into the new facility. A professional library mov­
ing company transferred the library’s book col­

lections, computers and other equipment, and 
the contents o f offices. The movers, therefore, 
had to compete with the contractors who were 
working on their respective projects, as well as 
working around incoming deliveries o f furni­
ture and equipment and the comings and go­
ings o f authorized library and campus person­
nel.

Clearly, in a move of this magnitude, with 
millions o f dollars o f inventory, the library had 
to establish a set o f procedures in order to pro­
tect this valuable property.

Literature re v ie w
A review o f the literature indicates a wealth of 
literature on the physical moving o f a library 
into a new building; however, security during 
a move, in most instances, is addressed only 
briefly, if at all. Despite the brevity, the authors 
clearly indicate that the security o f the collec­
tion must be of prime concern. Tucker further 
states that “it is rather ironic that we spend thou­
sands o f dollars to install a security system to 
protect our materials and then on move day 
throw the doors wide open to any and all.”1

Procedures
Several months before the start o f the move, 
the director o f libraries asked that I take over 
the responsibility o f security from the facilities 
coordinator, who was responsible for various 
other move-related projects. During the earlier 
discussions, two areas o f concern were identi­
fied:

1) Traffic con sid erations. The campus his­
torically experiences light traffic during the fall 
quarter break period; most of the people around 
are CSUB staff arriving and leaving work. It 
was recommended, then, that no specific needs

P a tricia  A. R obles is assistan t lib ra r ia n  a t  th e W alter W. Stiern L ibrary a t  C a lifo r n ia  State University, 
B akersfield ; e-m a il: p ro b les@ csu b a k .ed u

mailto:probles@csubak.edu


4 28/C&RL News

“ It is rather ironic that w e  spend 
thousands of dollars to install a 
security system  to protect our 
m aterials and then on move 
d a y  throw  the doors w id e  open 
to a n y  and a ll.”

for barricading roadways or sidewalks were 
warranted at that time.

2 ) Security con sid erations. The more i
portant of the two concerns was the need to 
develop a procedure that would ensure that 
unsecured library property, especially expen­
sive equipment such as computers, was not im­
properly removed from either the old or new 
library during the confusion that results in such 
a move. The basic recommendations were:

• Access badges be required o f all people 
entering and exiting either building.

• Sufficient student assistant staffing would 
be hired for each of the entrances where books 
and equipment were being moved out o f one 
building and into the other. These students, 
most o f whom had prior experience in Public 
Safety, would ensure that anyone not wearing 
a badge would not enter either building.

• These students would be issued two-way 
radios for direct contact with Public Safety dis­
patch should a problem arise.

These general recommendations were es­
tablished prior to my assuming responsibility 
of this project. My charge, then, was to refine 
further the library’s needs within this frame­
work in cooperation with Public Safety, imple­
ment the plan and procedures, and facilitate 
security, as needed, once the move began. The 
following details were approved and imple­
mented:

• Those entrances to be used by staff, mov­
ers, and vendors were to be staffed from 7:00 
a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Monday through Saturday, 
by Public Safety personnel.

• No one would be permitted entrance into 
either library building unless he or she had been 
issued a n d  were wearing one o f the two color- 
coded, designated passes (yellow for staff, blue 
for vendors).

• Relief/roving security personnel were in­
structed to question any individuals they ob­
served inside either library building not wear­
ing a pass. Individuals without the proper

m­

identification would be challenged. If 
a badge could not be produced, an 
officer would be called.

• Entrance security pers
instructed that no one was to be per­
mitted to exit the Stiern Library with 
any equipment or books, whether 
they had a pass or not. Individuals 
attempting to leave would be stopped 
until verification o f their authorization 

onnel were 

to remove the items was confirmed 
by one of the four coordinators: myself, the 
library director, the facilities coordinator, or the 
media services director, preferably in that or­
der.

• Security staff would be equipped with 
radios for communication.

• Security p ersonnel w ould not leave 
their posts unattended for any reason with­
out authorized relief. They w ere not to be 
used for any detail or other work request 

ithout authorization from the Public Safety 
officer in charge, or one o f the designated 
coordinators.

Considerations
Buildings. First, in order to address our stu­

dent staffing needs, a decision needed to be 
ade about how many and which entrances 
ould be used for the move. With a potential 

or more than ten combined entrances in both 
ibraries, a total of three entrances were used 
nd, therefore, staffed during the move. All other 
oors remained locked. At the old library, the 
ain entrance was the only one used. At the 

tiern Library, two entrances were used mainly, 
ut others were used when needed. When an 
ntrance other than the two main ones was 
sed, the relief/roving security person staffed 

he auxiliary entrance.
Student w o rkforce. Once the access points 

nd times of operation were finalized, it was 
etermined there would be four persons work­

ng each shift— one at each of the entrances of 
he two buildings, and a relief person who 
ould roam both buildings and relieve the oth­

rs as needed. Each shift was six hours.
The hiring and scheduling of the students 

as handled entirely by the Pubic Safety Of­
ice. Fourteen students were hired specifically 
or this project and all had prior experience 
orking for the Public Safety Office but none 
ad worked in the library. After checking in 
ith the Pubic Safety Office, the students re­
orted directly to me.

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July/August 1 9 9 6 /4 2 9

P eople. The move was not an isolated oc­
currence in which only library personnel were 
involved. Well over one hundred CSUB em­
ployees, including administrators, staff, and stu­
dents, actively participated in the move. Media 
Services, Instructional Television, and the In­
structional Electronic Tech Center offices were 
moving permanently into the Stiern Library 
building. The staffs o f the Computer Services, 
Plant Operations, Procurement, and Telecom­
munications offices also needed access to pro­
vide their respective services as required. Also, 
there were various contractors working in the 
Stiern Library, as well as numerous outside ven­
dors who delivered new furniture or equipment, 
and/or whose services were required to make 
the library operational.

Identification. As the university’s newest 
and largest facility, the Stiern Library caused a 
lot o f excitement on campus and in the com­
munity. Keeping out curiosity seekers was 
something the library needed to be prepared 
for. Also, because o f the large number o f people 
involved with the move, some identification 
procedure was clearly needed to keep unau­
thorized persons from wandering around the 
new building.

Badges imprinted with the CSUB Library and 
numbered sequentially were used as identifi­
cation. Each badge was assigned to a particular 
individual with the embossed number cross- 
referenced to his or her name. Staff members 
wore yellow passes, vendors and visitors were 
assigned blue ones. CSUB staff were respon­
sible for their own badges throughout the en­
tire move; vendors’ and visitors’ badges were 
issued as needed and were returned at the end 
o f the day.

In simplest terms, the procedure was “no 
badge, no access, no exceptions.”

C om m u n ication s. Since telephones were 
not yet operational in the Stiern Library, there 
was no direct telecommunication between stu­
dents and library personnel. The students were 
given two-way radios to communicate with the 
Public Safety Office. Each o f the four coordina­
tors had a portable cellular phone. To commu­
nicate, the students radioed the campus’ Public 
Safety dispatcher who then called me (or an­
other coordinator if I was not there) on the 
cellular phone. Serving as the intermediary, the 
dispatcher relayed information between us.

Reflections an d  recom m endations
• Be visible. With lots of activities hap­

pening simultaneously, it is important to stay 
visible, flexible, and patient. If telephones are 
not operational, it is even more critical to be 
visible. We quickly discovered that using the 
campus dispatcher as the intermediary was not 
very effective. As a result, I spent considerable 
amounts o f time floating betw een both build­
ings keeping in close contact with the stu­
dents, the other coordinators, and library per­
sonnel.

• Use two- o r  fou r-hou r w ork  shifts. The
primary task o f security— monitoring the flow 
of materials entering and leaving the buildings—  
was quite monotonous, which may have con­
tributed to scheduling problems that began 
occurring in the later stages of the move. Some 
students did not show up for work, others were 
late or left early. The six-hour shift was too 
long for the task at hand.

• Involve lib ra ry  p e rso n n e l. Using li­
brary students and staff as part o f the security 
force would have been a better idea than using 
only Public Safety’s student assistants. The move 
was chaotic at times and staff anxiety was evi­
dent. Besides serving as a calming effect, using 
library staff would have been more beneficial 
to the library. The library staff is more familiar 
with fellow employees (and the departments 
they work in), and the library would have saved 
money since the staff was already getting paid 
to be there, instead o f having to pay additional 
salaries for the Public Safety Office’s student 
assistants. For maximum effectiveness, however, 
only interested library personnel should be

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430/C&RL News

asked to participate in a move. Those not in­
terested may resent the additional responsibil­
ity. Also, the move occurred near the Christ­
mas holidays when many staff members were 
on vacation and, thus, not available. Using staff 
from both the library and Public Safety could 
have made security op eration s run more 
smoothly.

# Personalize th e identification syste
used as m u ch  as possible. Badges worn by 
staff were often lost or forgotten; some staff 
resented having to wear one, while others lent 
their badges to their colleagues even though 
the passes were supposed to be nontransfer- 
able. Also, as long as a person wore a badge, 
he or she was rarely challenged by security 
personnel. While there is no way to avoid com­
pletely the problems we encountered using the 
badge numbering system, using individual 
names rather than numbers on the badges 
would have been much more effective. Staff 
would not have been as likely to let others use 
their badges, plus the security force could have 
learned the names of the staff, thus becoming 
more familiar with library personnel. If money 
and time were not concerns, the ideal option 
would have been to use picture ID cards such

as those used in hospitals and other private 
sector operations.

Conclusion
The move from the old library building to the 
Stiern Library facility went exceptionally well. 
The library opened as scheduled with book 
collections, equipment and furniture, and of­

mf ice belongings in place. Overall, the security 
measures implemented for the move were suc­
cessful; only one computer terminal could not 
be accounted for among the millions of dollars 
of inventory  that was relocated to the Stiern 
Library facility.

Computers, CD-ROMs, and expensive video 
equipment are a vital component of today’s li­
braries, and, therefore, much more costly to 
replace. In planning and implementing secu­
rity for a move to a new facility, safeguarding 
library property should be the highest priority. 
Involving library personnel in the move as much 
as possible should come next.

Notes
1. Dennis C. Tucker, From Here to There: 

Moving a  Library (Bristol, Ind.: Wyndham Hall 
Press, 1987). ■