How to Reduce or Stop Anti-Social Act in The Library

                                              The library as a non-profit making and indispensable source of information has important functions to perform in the society. But for it to function effectively, the users are expected to behave in a way that would not run contrary to the rules and regulation of the library. Some of these anti- social behaviors include mutilation of books, noise, fighting, smoking etc. One of the worst anti -social act in the library is mutilation. Mutilation use to render books unusable. According to Phillip Mark (1998), “mutilation accounts up to 95% of anti-social act done in the library”. Readers who need these books either for their own private reading or for research are deprived of this natural rights and oppournity of availing themselves of the information contained therein (in the torn -off pages). Such anti- social behavior equally incurs unnecessary and avoidable expenses of replacing the book.  The money used in replacing those mutilated books could be used in either buying more books, journals or some other library equipment. Sometimes, the money for the replacement is not even available as most libraries are under- funded.   Another anti-social act is dog-earing of books. Dog- earring facilitates tearing and mutilation. In fact, actual tearing might start from these dog-eared pages when being opened, especially if the book is not of a high quality and if the book is in constant use.

Apart from these anti-social acts which are directed to physical books, there are other acts that are not socially acceptable in the library. Noise is one of such anti-social behaviors. Noise disturbs, distracts, and disrupts people who are doing serious reading.   Another anti-social behavior that is not acceptable in the library is fighting.   Fighting is the height of disturbance in the library as fighting will not only disturbs and disrupts the normal peaceful atmosphere in the library, but may also lead to breaking of some furniture and facilities in the library. Other anti- social vice or act include smoking in the library, vandalizing the library, exchanging words or quarrelling in the library.

The first step to reduce anti-social act in the library is to discover how the thieves use to operate.  According to a research conducted by Elliot and Pierce (1998), about 65% of the thefts are committed during the library closing hours or in the nights, 25% during the period of electricity blackout and 10% during the day. According to Hamptmand (1991), “student mutilate library materials when the library was about to close and they were running short of time to finish their assignment. The pressure of getting their assignment finished mounted, most mutilators were motivated to steal or tear off pages of library books because they were looking for material in response to their assignment”.   According to Elliot, 70% of the stolen and mutilated items are discovered through the exist controls.  Therefore, Liberians should beef up surveillance during closing hours and make sure the exit is properly monitored.  

One of the most important measures of library security is the library building design. The Cleveland state university discovered that building design was responsible for the extreme loss of library materials. The foregoing showed that multiple entrance and exists make effective checking difficult and therefore aid the loss of books.  Langmead and Bachman (1984) have laid guidelines for constructing academic library building. The guideline stated that a library suppose to have one exist through which all library users must pass before reaching the exterior door. Powell (1975) offered advice on building a new library recommended that, “security must be first discussed and included in the architectural design before the foundation is laid”.  

Liberians has observed that use of open stacks actually increase major threat to books stock. Without   constant threat of surveillance and interruptions by library staff, the vandals among library users will have greater scope for their activity. Hamptmand and Rude (1991) were of the view that one of the most popular security measures is the use of narrow strips of magnetic tape inserted into the spines of print material.  They explained that, “the alarm does ring when a person tries to leave the library with material that has been desensitized, presumably signaling an attempted theft”.

References

 Lincoln A j (1986)   library crime and security Library and archival security.

Lorenwen M (1997) security in the public libraries of Illinois

Lyle, Guy R (1974) book losses from public libraries

  The national library association bulletin march 50-