Guest Column
Mary Faith
Chmiel
Library pilferage unfair to others
There is an interesting situation that seems to have developed at the Spots-wood Public Library over the past few months. I’m not sure if this phenomenon is the work of one individual or many, if it is the byproduct of recent economic uncertainty, or if it reflects a perception that the staff of the Spotswood Public Library is dull-witted and blind.
I refer to the sudden increase in pilferage at the library.
Over the past few months, someone has apparently decided to create a home library of Disney videocassettes, as we are now missing seven videos from their display boxes. Yes, we were putting older children’s videos out on the floor, rather than holding them behind the circulation desk. We did this for spatial considerations. Our floor space is tight, and the staff and I made the informed decision to place certain videos directly on the floor in order to secure newer tapes behind the desk. Naïve? Maybe. But I think trusting is a better word.
Also, in the past few months, we have noticed that apparently someone with an appetite for fine food, but with a limited budget, likes the recipes in Bon Appetit, Cooking Light and A Taste of Home, because recipes have been carefully clipped from all these magazines. It would appear that this individual’s budget is so limited that not only can a subscription to the magazines not be afforded, the cost of photocopying the desired recipes is also beyond financial feasibility.
Finally, there are the puzzle pages missing from The New York Times Magazine. I can easily understand why one would not want to spend $3 every Sunday for the Times; it is an awfully big newspaper with a tremendous amount to read and then recycle. But why steal from the library? Why deprive your fellow cardholders and residents of the same pleasure you enjoy — that of doing the Sunday puzzles? Is this mere thoughtlessness, an indifference to the opportunity of others? Or does it reflect a malicious desire to deprive others of the puzzles?
In a world of big problems involving national security and international terrorism, the deliberate theft and mutilation faced by one small library can be seen as a very minor dilemma. And, in light of the big picture, it is.
But in a town as small as Spotswood, where the "Welcome to Spotswood" signs read "A Friendly Community," the selfish mischief done by one or two unfriendly individuals creates an unwelcome atmosphere of suspicion and distrust in the library. I have no wish to see a security system implemented at the Spotswood Public Library. I don’t want to send a message to the community that we don’t trust the public.
But I also don’t want the public — that small, irresponsible and self-serving segment of it — to think that the staff of the library is blind to what is going on. We are aware of these thefts and mutilations, and we are very unhappy about them.
We hope the individuals who have behaved so thoughtlessly will be directed by their consciences to think twice before doing further damage to the valuable community resources of the Spotswood Public Library.
Mary Faith Chmiel is the director of the Spotswood Public Library