ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 284 / C&RL News The story of the Berkeley library theft By Peter E. Hanff Coordinator of Technical Services The Bancroft Library University of California, Berkeley How one library successfully apprehended a book thief, with some recommendations for collection security. T h e library and bookselling communities have been aware for some time that book theft is on the rise and that large-scale theft is seriously damaging research collections. In response to the problem, the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section of ACRL, the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of Amer­ ica, and the Society of American Archivists have all issued publications concerned with theft. How­ ever, despite the general information available, most libraries are still not prepared to act effec­ tively if a theft occurs. This report details a case that occurred last summer on the Berkeley campus of the University of California. The events and actions taken in the case may serve as a guide for other libraries in future thefts. The reader should bear in mind that Berkeley had already made plans for dealing with theft. The General Library had appointed a Library Security Council, and The Bancroft Library, Berkeley’s rare book and manuscript library, had appointed me as its Security Officer some years ago. In addi­ tion we had discussed library theft with the Univer­ sity of California Police Department and had initi­ ated discussion w ith the D istrict A ttorney in Berkeley about the importance of prosecuting book thieves. My awareness was also heightened because I was chairing the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section’s Security Committee and was serving on the planning committee for the Oberlin Confer­ ence on T heft.1 Ironically, just two weeks after I completed a paper on protocols for dealing with library theft, The Bancroft Library received a letter from the an­ tiquarian bookseller, W arren R. Howell, asking if we would check half a dozen titles against our cata­ log. Our acquisitions staff quickly determined that Bancroft held none of the titles, but that the titles were owned by the UC Berkeley General Library; the General Library copies proved not to be on the shelves nor charged out. We gave this information to Howell, who brought the books to me the next day for inspection. He explained that although he and his staff could find no visible marks of current ownership on the books, several encounters with the young man who offered them for sale had left Howell suspicious. The young man had given a Berkeley address and telephone number, and Ho­ well had wondered if, by chance, the books had come from a Berkeley library. Our close inspection of the volumes revealed al­ most immediately that spine call number labels and other marks of ownership normally placed in books by the General Library had been skillfully removed or covered over by old book stickers or old bookplates. Only the experience of working regu­ larly with the marking patterns of General Library books made it evident that the books had been tam- 1The Oberlin Conference on Theft, funded by a grant from the H. W. Wilson Foundation, was held at Oberlin College, Ohio, September 12-13, 1983 (see C&BL News, October 1983, pp. 362-63. June 1984 / 285 pered w ith —individuals less fam iliar w ith our practices w ould not have discerned the tam pering. I alerted the University Police and the assistant university librarian responsible for the General Li­ brary collections and arranged a m eeting between them and W arren Howell for W ednesday of the following week. W e intended to evaluate the evi­ dence and determ ine w h at action to take. Over the weekend I described the recovery of the bopks to one of the General L ibrary security offi­ cers and to one of Berkeley’s antiquarian booksel­ lers. On Sunday th a t bookseller spotted some fa­ m iliar volumes, also w ith their marks of ownership apparently removed, in another bookshop. He ob­ tained permission to bring the books to me. On Monday m orning the books were checked against the General Library catalog, and once again we determ ined th a t these were books th a t belonged to th e U niversity of C alifo rn ia at Berkeley. T he Berkeley bookseller alerted booksellers around the Bay Area, several of whom recognized the descrip­ tion of the young m an and the types of books he had been offering for sale. At least six booksellers had purchased books from him. In most instances the young m an gave the same nam e, but the addresses and telephone num bers varied. In the Berkeley shop w here books had been recovered he had used a different surnam e, so we could not be sure we were dealing w ith only one individual . I alerted the Uni­ versity Police to this new inform ation, and they asked me to accom pany them to the bookstore to identify additional volumes left on approval. My inspection revealed th a t these books, too, had their marks of ownership carefully removed and bore stickers identical to those in books returned by Ho­ well. On the basis of my identification of these as Gen­ eral L ibrary books, the University Police were able to apprehend the young m an as he collected pay­ m ent from the bookseller. L ater in the afternoon, the suspect was arrested and brought back to the campus for booking and interrogation. At first he refused to identify himself, but when pressed gave the nam e he had used w ith W arren Howell. He was rem anded to the county jail on $15,000 bail. The m eeting scheduled for W ednesday had now taken on a different character. Several booksellers who had purchased books from the suspect brought those books w ith them to the meeting. One by one, three of the booksellers were taken into an adjacent room and shown a photographic line-up of various individuals. Each m ade a positive identification of the suspect. Because the suspect had told W arren Howell repeatedly th a t he had additional books for sale at home, the police now felt they had sufficient evidence to secure a search w arran t. T h at after­ noon the w a rra n t was issued and I accom panied the police to the suspect’s rented rooms in a Berke­ ley house. There we recovered about 250 volumes, m ost in good le a th e r bindings, m any of them French im prints of the 18th century. In addition, we recovered an array of equipm ent and supplies for repairing and dyeing leather, eradicating ink, and dissolving adhesives, as well as old bookplates and facsimile bookplates (including a supply of fresh book stickers identical to those found in m any of the books recovered from the booksellers, to­ gether w ith paper stain apparently used to “age” the stickers.) The evidence was gathered and brought back to Spine call number labels had been skillfully removed. the campus for inventory. Volunteers from the Ref­ erence D epartm ent of the General L ibrary carried out the inventory, which took a num ber of days. In the m eantim e, I consulted frequently w ith legal counsel on campus. I stressed th a t the L ibrary was anxious to prosecute the case to the full extent of the law and th a t we wished to be sure the m atter was handled effectively. In crim inal cases affecting University property, the University Police are re­ sponsible for preparing the evidence for the Dis­ trict Attorney; University Counsel is not directly involved. On advice from counsel, I had already sent a m em orandum to the Chief of the University Police stressing the im portance of keeping the District At­ torney fully inform ed of the development of the case. Although the arresting officers told the Dis­ trict Attorney th a t we had been issued a search w arran t, they did not im m ediately transm it infor­ m ation th a t a large num ber of books had been re­ covered. This was largely because they w anted to complete the inventory of the evidence and have the m aterial appraised so th a t they could give the District Attorney a full accounting of the value of the recovered books. As a result of the delay, the suspect was able to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge (the original charge at the tim e of his a r­ rest), although in fact the value of the recovered books was sufficient to justify a felony grand theft charge. W arren Howell volunteered to m ake the a p ­ praisal of the books and established their value at $25,000. This inform ation was conveyed to the District Attorney who, after consultation w ith me, filed an additional felony-level charge against the suspect. Privately I was told th a t the defense atto r­ ney w ould undoubtedly be able to have the larger charge dismissed, because he w ould be able to show th a t the recovery on the search w arran t was p a rt of the same case as the original arrest. Never­ theless, it was im portant to the L ibrary th a t the more serious charge be filed so th a t we could ensure the most thorough possible pursuit of the case. 286 / C&RL News It is important to point out that the District At­ torney’s office has been seriously affected by the passage of Proposition 13 by California voters. The heavily occupied staff must set strict priorities in handling prosecutions. Because Berkeley is a large, urban campus, its Police Department also contends with a sizable case load. As an example, I noticed that as we were developing the book-theft case, The bookselling community plays a vital role in theft cases. $60,000 worth of oriental rugs were stolen from the University President’s house—that places the value of the Library’s loss in some perspective. Reaching the District Attorney by telephone to discuss the case was fru s tra tin g and tim e- consuming. Nevertheless, with persistence, I was able to have several valuable discussions with him about our belief that the case needed to be pursued vigorously. Several possible bargaining positions were proposed by the defense, but the Library chose to prosecute, even though we understood that the likely outcome was to be no more than compensation for damage to the books and staff time required for inventorying and re-accessioning the recovered books. The District Attorney took into account the Li­ brary’s interest in determining how the thefts were carried out, and he arranged with the defense at­ torney that the suspect be brought to the Library for questioning by the staff. The interview, which involved eight staff members, took approximately an hour and a half and provided valuable insight into the attitudes of the suspect and the methods he used in carrying out the thefts. Ultimately, as had been anticipated, the suspect was permitted to plead guilty to the second charge after it was re­ vised to a misdemeanor charge. He was ordered to pay restitution to the Library and to the booksellers who had purchased books from him. His case is now under the jurisdiction of a County Probation Officer. Among the lessons learned by the Library in pur­ suing the case, some are likely to have general ap­ plication: 1. Once a case is discovered, it is essential that one staff member be assigned to follow through with the case. 2. The bookselling community plays a vital role in identifying and resolving cases of book theft. The booksellers in the Bay Area, through their own communication network, recognized the descrip­ tion of the suspect and telephoned the Library at once to identify books they had purchased; they re­ turned the books immediately and cooperated in identifying the suspect and establishing the value of the books that had been stolen. 3. The Library subscribes to Bookline Alert: Missing Books and Manuscripts (BAMBAM), the national online computer record. When informed of the nature of the theft, BAMBAM circulated a report to make other subscribers aware of the theft from Berkeley. 4. Following recommendations of the Antiquar­ ian Booksellers Association of America and the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section, we alerted the FBI office in San Francisco of the case. Nor­ mally the FBI can be involved in such cases only when the value of the theft is greater than $5,000, which was certainly the situation here. However, there was no evidence that the case extended be­ yond the local area and we were satisfied that the case could be handled locally. 5. Before we had a chance to prepare a public statement, several newspaper reporters telephoned for additional information about the case as re­ ported on the court blotter. If we experience an­ other theft, we will prepare a public statement im­ mediately. 6. We kept in close touch with the University Po­ lice, and in particular with the two officers who had arrested the suspect; when it became apparent that there had been a temporary break in commun­ ication between the District Attorney and the Po­ lice, we arranged a special meeting with the Cam­ pus Chief of Police. He agreed to have the case well documented so that information could be pre­ sented to the other University Police Departments throughout the nine-campus system of the Univer­ sity of California. He kept the other Departments posted as the case developed. 7. We kept track of the amount of staff time spent on the case, including my time, the time of the volunteers who prepared the inventory, the time spent in interviewing the suspect, together with estimates of the cost to repair the books and to return them to the collection; these expenses be­ came the basis for our claim for restitution. 8. We interviewed the suspect to learn as much as possible about how he gained access to the book stacks, how he removed the books from the Gen­ eral Library, his plan of operation, and the names of booksellers he had approached. Wherever I had independent knowledge of his activities, I was able to corroborate his account; I therefore presumed th a t his other statements were also essentially truthful. 9. We made considerable effort to keep the staff immediately involved in the case informed by di­ rect discussion and by publishing statements in the General L ibrary’s weekly newsletter. We also granted interviews to the media. Nevertheless, even greater effort to keep the staff informed of de­ velopments in a case of theft is essential because June 1984 / 287 such cases have a strong im pact on staff morale. A particularly difficult aspect of this case was the im ­ pact on the staff when it became clear th a t the sus­ pect had initially been allowed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor; filing the second, felony charge was valuable not only because of the size of the theft but also because it reflected the harm done to the li­ brary. 10. To follow the case as it progressed through the court required considerable persistence because the courts, the District Attorney, and the Univer­ sity Police are not well equipped to direct inform a­ tion back to the Library. O ur concerned Berkeley bookseller also pursued the case by attending the court hearings; he secured a copy of the court tra n ­ script and presented it to us for our files. Conclusions There is always room for im provem ent in secu­ rity planning. On the basis of our experience in this case, we have a better understanding of weaknesses in our present security arrangem ents and are tak ­ ing steps to correct them. The General Library at Berkeley is a large, complex organization housed in numerous buildings on campus. The thefts occured in the controlled-access book stacks of the Main Li­ brary Building (built in 1911), an area posing diffi­ cult problems because of its age and design. The theft, which involved mostly 18th-century m ateri­ als, prom pted us to adopt a policy already under consideration: th e 18 th -cen tu ry im p rin ts have been designated en bloc to be transferred to the cus­ tody of The Bancroft L ibrary for greater safekeep­ ing. The announcem ent of the transfer has been well received by the campus com m unity, in p art because of the wide publicity of the theft case. We were able to take advantage of this major incident to bring about sound changes in policies and prac­ tices and to overcome the inertia characteristic of large institutions. Advance p lanning is exceedingly im p o rtan t. Designation of a staff security officer is vital, and the security officer needs sufficient authority to make quick decisions in dealing w ith theft. The Bancroft Security Officer is a library adm inistra­ tor, as are the three members of the General Li­ brary Security Council. All had opportunity to dis­ cuss security concerns before the incident. All had reviewed the guidelines prom ulgated by the ACRL Rare Books and Manuscripts Section, and had had occasion to be in fairly close com m unication w ith the University Police. D e m a n d s on s ta ff tim e in such cases a re co n sid erab le—I w ro te fre q u e n t reports on th e progress of the case and talked often w ith General Library adm inistration about possible strategies in dealing w ith the m atter. I needed to be in touch w ith the Police and District Attorney far more of­ ten than I anticipated. A significant factor during the development of the case was staff concern and morale; a theft of such size was viewed by m any as a violation of the L ibrary’s integrity, and the staff was eager for the case to be solved. W e hope there will be no future incidents of theft from the Li­ brary, but we are now better equipped to respond to such incidents if they occur. O n M o n d ay , N ovem ber 14, 1983, M ichael Kunashko pled guilty in the case of State o f Califor­ nia v. M ichael Kunashko. He had earlier pled guilty to m isdem eanor grand theft in a related action. He received a six m onth sentence to county jail, suspended, and was placed on probation and ordered to pay restitution to the University of C ali­ fornia and to booksellers to whom he had sold stolen books. ■ ■ Rubber stam p art enthusiasts can now m ark their holdings w ith the stam p shown here from Funny Business. It sells for $5.75 and may be ordered from Funny Business, 2129 Second Avenue, Seattle, WA 98121; (206) 623-7842. Add $1.00 for shipping. © 1981, Funny Business COSTS MONEY When you manage a library these days, you’re well aware that space is precious. And additional shelves for backfile volumes are expensive. Well, the American Chemical Society knows your concerns. That’s why all the Society’s 20 primary publications in the field of chemistry are available in microfilm editions — including complete volumes back to 1879. Start Saving Space In Your Chemical Reference Files Now! If you are setting up a microfilm system, expanding or changing one, or just want to discuss the possibilities—an ACS Sales Representative is ready to work with you. Just fill in the coupon below, or better yet, call us: American Chemical Society Toll Free (1)-800-424-6747 Our 16th Year in Micropublishing Washington, D.C. area residents call 872-8065 ACS Microfilm Editions— Information Coupon Yes, please send me more Name______________________________________________ information on American Chemical Society publications Organizatlon---------------------------------------------------------------------- as indicated below: Address_____________________________________________ □ ACS Microforms Catalog City state Zip_________________________________________ □ ACS Books & Journals country_____________________________________________________ Catalog (includes microforms information) Telephone (_____ )_____________________________________ Return this coupon to: American Chemical Society, Sales Office, 1155 16th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036