Suffolk County has stated that around 10,000 CDs and books have ‘disappeared’ from its libraries over the last 3 years.
These items have been stolen, lost, or misplaced, according to library bosses, with Ipswich County Library alone recording over 900 items missing between 2014 to 2017.
Ironically, the prison libraries at Highpoint, Warren Hill and Hollesley Bay recorded just 161 items disappearing, making them the least stolen from libraries in the area.
Alison Wheeler, Suffolk County’s chief executive has stated that this massive “theft” was being taken seriously:
“Clearly some of these items will have been taken from libraries. If someone is suspected of stealing, we will contact police, and this will be treated as a criminal matter.”
She went on to point out:
“It’s worth reminding everyone that we do have CCTV in libraries so if someone is suspected of stealing or any other crime they may be caught on camera.”
She also appealed to those who know of anyone stealing library items to either contact Suffolk Libraries or report it to the police.
To help with curtailing the thefts, the council is installing more CCTV and beefing up security around the self-service equipment, which could be a weak spot for the libraries.
Other than Ipswich, the worst affected libraries are:
- Felixstowe – 695 items missing
- Woodbridge – 608 items missing
- Sudbury – 559 items missing
- Beccles – 422 items missing
Fortunately, children centres had the least number of thefts with just 2 items missing at each.
Depriving Others of Joy
Suffolk County Council’s cabinet member for finance and heritage, Richard Smith, said that anyone stealing books and CDs from libraries was “depriving others of the joy of reading good books,” and it also causes problems for the staff who are unable to see what needs replacing since the missing items have been trickling out over a period of 3 years.
Despite this, Mrs Wheeler states that the county constantly monitors the demand for literature, and does their best to ensure that the libraries have enough copies of existing and new titles.
She also pointed out that the county gets a massive discount on new books, so the financial damage is limited, which is a good job since Suffolk Libraries had their budget cut by £200,000 back in 2018.
Despite this discount, Mrs Wheeler emphasised that “We are never complacent about missing items, particularly at a time when funding is so challenging.”
Suffolk has 44 public libraries, but there are also prison libraries and children’s centres from which books can be borrowed. This makes a total of 77 locations in the county, and missing items from all have been included in the survey.
The county has a dynamic book stock meaning that literature and media do not belong to a single library. This goes some way to combat the issue of missing stock because items can be moved from one library to another across the county, ensuring that the books are constantly on the move to meet the demands of customers.
Richard Smith concluded by saying that:
“While the problem is very minor, both Suffolk County Council and Suffolk Libraries take it very seriously.”
He also added that the books were to be seen as a valuable assets and the cabinet remained confident that the Library system would be great stewards of them.