[Publib] "stolen" library books

[Jackie Griffin]

I think asking for a police report is reasonable and also responsive to our responsibility to be good stewards of public funds.  
We don't ask accusingly, we just state that this is our policy.  Over 20 years of doing this I've never had a patron complain or say that it was unreasonable although I have had several just not return with the report.  

Last year, a family in one of our very tiny rural communities had a house fire and lost everything they owned.  They are a home schooling family and heavy users of our tiny, tiny library there.  Of course we waived their costs (and this time without any report-the burned down building seemed enough to the community librarian oddly enough).  A few months later, the mother walked in and handed our librarian a check for $500-far more than the replacement cost of their books.  

Jackie Y. Griffin
Library Director
Ventura County Library System
646 County Square Drive
Suite 150
Ventura, CA 93003-0435
(805)477-7333
Fax (805) 477-7340

>>> "Elizabeth Rogers" <rogers at cefls.org> 1/17/2008 9:34 AM >>>
I'm really surprised at the tone of these responses.  It would never 
occur to me to ask for a police report, and I wouldn't think it would do 
much for public relations. Whenever a patron of ours has ANY sort of 
mishap, disaster, etc., we want library books to be the last thing they 
worry about.  We want them to think of libraries as places where they're 
welcome and not punished for things they have no control over.  If the 
patron's house burns down, do you require a sworn statement from a 
fireman?  I see having your car stolen as a traumatic event, and 
demanding to see a police report compounds the trauma by suggesting that 
the patron is dishonest.   This doesn't mean we don't take the financial 
support of our taxpayers seriously, it just means we take our patrons' 
needs seriously as well.  After all--they're taxpayers too, for the most 
part.

Elizabeth Rogers
CEF Library System
33 Oak Street
Plattsburgh, NY  12901


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