LIBRARY SECURITY AND BOOK THEFT AND MUTILATION

ABSTRACT

The study investigates theft, mutilation and abuse of library and information materials by undergraduate students of the University of Benin, Benin city, . Survey research method was adopted for the study; undergraduates’ students in 100 level to 400 level were selected for this study. Questionnaire are the main instrument for data collection. Data collected were analyzed using frequency, tables and percentages. The results reveal that poor patron education(46%), inadequate number of library resources (25%) and high cost of photocopying among others were the major causes of theft and mutilation of library materials. Also, findings revealed that the major impacts of theft on libraries is that it diminishes trust in library security(40%), it decreases access to resources (37%) and it increases cost of replacing(15%). The findings also revealed that the means through which library materials are being stolen are by tearing pages off(34%) ,  throwing them out of windows(28%), hiding them inside their pockets or cloths(16%) andhiding them inside exercise books( 12%) etcetera. The findings further reveal that installation of surveillance cameras( 63%) abookook detection systems(25%) among others were the major methods library adopt to prevent information resources from theft, mutilation and abuse. The study recommended that library management should make sure that patrons are properly educated on library use, the library should reduce the cost of photocopying materials in the library in order to encourage users to photocopying materials instead of stealing or mutilating such materials.