Library Stuff

“At a table in the library of the Maryland Historical Society, an investigator with the National Archives pulls file folder after file folder from a cardboard box and hands them to library director Patricia Dockman Anderson. An FBI agent sits nearby. Item No. 451: an invitation to meet Vice President Hubert Humphrey in Hawaii in 1966. Item No. 1695: a ticket stub to the 1912 Democratic National Convention. Item No. 1332: a program linked to President Abraham Lincoln’s 1865 funeral. Until recently, the documents were evidence, some of the more than 10,000 items seized in a massive theft investigation that ensnared a well-known collector of presidential memorabilia and his assistant. This week, however, they were returned to the society to become again pieces of history available to researchers.” (via AP)

Houston Chronicle – “While on its mission to provide free information, the Houston Public Library has to swat at the occasional counterfeiter. At each of the library’s 42 locations, equipment at the circulation desk includes a counterfeit detector pen. Widely available at office supply stores, the pen contains a solution that detects bills printed on common copier paper rather than the cotton-and-linen-fiber paper the U.S. government uses. When a librarian marks a bill with the pen and the mark turns black, that means the bill is bogus. If the mark turns yellow or remains clear, the money is good.”

North County Times – “Police recovered thousands of stolen library books and DVDs and arrested the 44-year-old woman who had them at her home, Carlsbad police said Wednesday. Maria Nater of Vista was booked into Vista jail Tuesday night on suspicion of receiving stolen property, according to San Diego County Sheriff’s Department records.”

Marietta Daily Journal – “Public safety begins with our teens who we can either educate and give opportunities to or deal with out on the streets. The same is true for the unemployed and homeless friends, neighbors and former co-workers who have touched every one of us. They need the libraries now more than they ever did. If we close libraries, we are shutting the doors on the people who need us most – a very real threat to public safety – as economic desperation often leads to crime and public unrest.”

News-Gazette.com – “University of Illinois police on Thursday recovered about 100 DVDs and video games stolen from the University of Illinois Undergraduate Library from the apartment of two Champaign women charged with stealing them. Laura Cordova, 21, a UI student, and Victoria Lopez, 21, who both listed addresses in the 300 block of West Springfield Avenue, were arraigned Friday in Champaign County Circuit Court on felony charges of burglary and theft. Lopez was also charged with misuse of a credit card.”

AP – “An unemployed book dealer who paraded as a wealthy playboy was sentenced Monday to eight years in prison for possessing a stolen first edition of Shakespeare’s plays, a rare volume described as a “quintessentially English treasure.” Last month, a jury cleared Raymond Scott, 53, of stealing the First Folio but convicted him of handling stolen goods.”

AP – “A flashy British book dealer accused of stealing a rare first edition of Shakespeare’s plays appeared for trial Wednesday in a silver limousine, sporting a Panama hat and flashing victory signs at reporters.”

AP – “Authorities say a 74-year-old Boise woman arrested after pouring mayonnaise in the Ada County library’s book drop box is a person of interest in at least 10 other condiment-related crimes.”

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Reuters – “A Cambridge graduate drew up a “thief’s shopping list” before stealing antique books worth 40,000 pounds from a world-famous library, a court heard on Tuesday.”

New York Post – “It was trash not treasure. The home-electronics installer accused of pilfering $1 million worth of rare books from a Fifth Avenue mansion owned by the widow of a Vanderbilt heir claimed the precious tomes has been left to rot in the basement. Timothy Smith, 41, faces a felony grand larceny charge for the alleged theft from the late Carter Burden’s extensive collection of 20th century American literature, including first-edition copies by Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald.”