kctipton writes “The Sunday Lubbock Avalanche-Journal had a cover story about how a student staffer working under little supervision on the night shift sold approximately $75,000 (face value) of almost-new library books for close to $15,000.
Between March 30 and July 31 [2006], police believe Nunley sent or arranged to send more than 1,000 books to an Oregon-based online book buyer specializing in textbooks and nonfiction.
and
Only full-time employees handle the roughly 40,000 to 50,000 unmarked, brand-new books that the library adds annually. But as a circulation desk employee, Nunley could get the books in near mint condition, bearing only red stamps identifying them as the property of Tech and a library call number marked in the book’s first few pages.His late-night shift gave him opportunity and little supervision.
In late March, a person using Nunley’s name, home address and an online payment system linked to a bank account offered five slightly used books to the online bookbuyer McKenzie Books. The account grew to be one of the business’s top 30 high-volume sellers, McKenzie Books owner Jim Smith said.
It’s a long article. Read on for more revelations.
What I find amusing and a little strange is that the reporter got Tech to admit that they aren’t intending to inventory their collection (which is supposedly 2.5 million books), and they hint that they never have. It’s very possible that they’ve been ripped off before and won’t ever know it.”
costs
It might be cheaper to ignore and replace the stuff people notice is missing rather than to do an inventory.
Re:costs
Oh it probably is cheaper, but do you want to be known as an institution that doesn’t know what it owns?
What if a business operated that way?
What a business model! Disclaimer: We can’t be sure of the accuracy of our online catalog.
Don’t forget the damages!
We corrupt the state catalog and and OCLC WorldCat.
come on
I’m pretty sure that mine isn’t the only library that has “hmm, that seems to be missing” items crop up in it’s collection.
Not several million dollars though.