[Publib] Stolen Bikes

[Miriam Bobkoff]

We have a lock which we lend out. We do take ID or something as collateral 
but this has never made sense to me. The collateral is that WE HAVE THE KEY. 
They CAN'T leave with the lock :-)  And usually I go outside with the patron 
to unlock the bike and retrieve the lock, otherwise the bike would be at risk 
while the patron is coming back in to return the lock to us.

I bet you could invent some way to lend locks that would work in your 
circumstances.

Miriam Bobkoff             personal: mbobkoff at cybermesa.com
Santa Fe Public Library    work: mkbobkoff at ci.santa-fe.nm.us
145 Washington Avenue
Santa Fe, NM 87501         The Library's Page:
(505) 955-6832                   http://www.santafelibrary.org
  Icarus... the SFPL Blog    http://santafelibrary.blogspot.com

---------- Original Message -----------
From: "Lise Chlebanowski" <lchlebanowski at avondale.org>
To: <publib at webjunction.org>
Sent: Mon, 26 Jun 2006 17:16:22 -0700
Subject: [Publib] Stolen Bikes

> Our library is in a very pedestrian oriented part of town. In 
> addition, many children who use the library ride their bikes here. 
> Since we are in a fairly high-crime area, we have a good number of 
> bikes that are stolen from the library. Lately kids have taken to 
> putting their bikes right in front of the windows along the doors so 
> they can watch them. They turn them upside-down and balance them on 
> the seat and handlebars, I guess as a way to slow down a would-be 
> thief. They resist parking them in the racks provided since they 
> don't have bike locks. We talked about seeing if the police 
> department could donate some bike locks that we could loan to kids 
> while they're at the library. However, we'd have to take some 
> collateral to make sure they return the locks. Has anyone had any 
> experience with doing this? Most of these kids come with nothing but 
> the bike. All we could come up with to keep was a shoe. TIA! 
>  
> 
> Lisë Chlebanowski
> 
> Library Manager
> 
> Avondale Public Library
> 
> 328 W. Western Ave.
> 
> Avondale, AZ 85323
> 
> 623-478-3105
------- End of Original Message -------