How To - Surveillance In A Library

The immediate thing that comes to mind to me is a checkout system, i.e., non staff are not allowed to go into the stacks. They request books of interest, staff retrives and it it assigned out to them. When they return, staff reviews and if the books have any problems, it is the responsibility of the person who checked it out.

The shelves make surveillance incredibly difficult, short of dedicating a camera to every aisle, which as you allude to, is likely cost prohibitive.

Suppose some benefactor funded installation of a camera at each end of every aisle. How would staff detect attempted book thefts or page removals? The monitoring challenge seems very substantial. If deterrent is the plan, well, a red flashing LED has been said to have some effect...

Given recent Surveillance End Users Getting Sued, you might need library lawyers to confirm no prior art to analytic page removal video primitives or remote page removal monitoring.

You could hire Det. Bookman... but make sure you have some instant coffee on hand.

The other issue I see here with putting cameras on every aisle is that there are still other places where a page could be removed - someone could take a book to a study carrel (holy smokes, I don't think I've actually used that term since high school) and pull out the page while reading it, slipping it under a coat or into a binder or notebook in relative privacy (unless you want to litter every corner of the library with cameras). Cameras watching the shelves and rows will let you track (to some degree) who takes a book out and when, but will be little use in proving who actually removed a page, especially if several people use the book before someone notices it missing.

Consider, too, that unless you have really good resolution and lighting, it may be impossible to tell WHAT book someone takes out from the middle of an aisle, especially if a lot of them look similar; someone accused could claim that they didn't take out that specific book, but one adjacent to it.

I agree, the best bet would be to have a strict checkout system - to expand the retail analogy, think of it more like a pharmacy: most items are out on open shelves, with the few "controlled substances" being available only over-the-counter from the pharmacist. If resources for indexing are tight, the practice could be limited to the books considered particularly valuable, rare, and/or susceptible to page theft. Since traffic for those books tends to be low, until the indexing is improved, it may even work to have a staffer accompany the borrower to find the book he/she wants.

They could also adopt something of a "safe deposit box" concept where certain books are under a checkout procedure, and then can only be taken to a certain open area with a couple of covering cameras, that offer little privacy for page-ripping.

Honestly, I think a combination of control measures would be FAR more effective than a bunch of cameras in reducing the actual theft. OP notes that even if a page is recovered, the value of a book is substantially reduced, and so the "ounce of prevention" theory really applies.

At our University, we had a significant theft problem at the library. Mostly, the thefts involved small electronics (smartphones and netbooks, etc.) that students left at their desk to "save" their study space when they used the bathroom or took a quick break. By adding two fixed cameras one focused on the entrance and one focused upon the exit, we have essentially eliminated the theft problem. The cameras are prominently displayed and we supplement them with signage to the effect of "...video surveillance in effect 24/7..." The final component was a 32" monitor that displays the camera view to everyone that enters the library. I feel that between the new cameras and the monitor, we have effectively cut crime at our location significantly. The cameras are also supplemented by a student-aide "checker" who does a cursory check of all back-packs of anyone exiting the library.

John:

I think that most of the hardended criminals know to secret the stolen goods in their pants. They realize a student aide "checker" won't search them. Now, common sense is another thing...the students unfortunately, think the library is their dorm room or their house and leave a $500 laptop on a desk like it is a pencil. The cameras were the real reason thefts have declined and I have to assume that the word is out on the street that our library is no longer an easy target.

Attached sign posted near main lobby and prominently throughout the 6 story building.