Library Security Management: An Introduction

During the last week of January 2001, the Royal Library suffered serious thefts in both its special reading rooms for maps and for manuscripts and rare books. Precious maps were removed from folio editions and smuggled out by a thief who was something of a magician. For years the Royal Library has b...

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Main Author: Erland Kolding Nielsen
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: openjournals.nl 2002-03-01
Series:Liber Quarterly: The Journal of European Research Libraries
Online Access:https://liberquarterly.eu/article/view/10299
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author Erland Kolding Nielsen
author_facet Erland Kolding Nielsen
author_sort Erland Kolding Nielsen
collection DOAJ
description During the last week of January 2001, the Royal Library suffered serious thefts in both its special reading rooms for maps and for manuscripts and rare books. Precious maps were removed from folio editions and smuggled out by a thief who was something of a magician. For years the Royal Library has been one of the most effectively secured buildings housing cultural assets in Denmark. Nevertheless, this incident happened and apparently could happen. The thefts were discovered the same day, but the thief had become suspicious and did not reappear over the next few days as expected. However, because the theft had been filmed on security cameras in the reading room, we had very good photographs of the thief. After days of hard work we were able to discover from the security film how the theft had been carried out and how the items had been smuggled out of the reading room. On the second day after the incident, I warned my fellow directors in the Nordic national libraries and in a number of university libraries with historical collections. Nevertheless, the following week the thief or his accomplice visited Helsinki University Library, and later we discovered that they had been in the Royal Library in The Hague at almost the same time, as well as some months earlier, and in the Royal Library in Stockholm on numerous occasions from the autumn of 2000 onwards.
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spelling doaj.art-7cdef08fe3b74a41810bcca48a78a9e02024-01-11T16:07:37Zengopenjournals.nlLiber Quarterly: The Journal of European Research Libraries2213-056X2002-03-0112410.18352/lq.7694Library Security Management: An IntroductionErland Kolding NielsenDuring the last week of January 2001, the Royal Library suffered serious thefts in both its special reading rooms for maps and for manuscripts and rare books. Precious maps were removed from folio editions and smuggled out by a thief who was something of a magician. For years the Royal Library has been one of the most effectively secured buildings housing cultural assets in Denmark. Nevertheless, this incident happened and apparently could happen. The thefts were discovered the same day, but the thief had become suspicious and did not reappear over the next few days as expected. However, because the theft had been filmed on security cameras in the reading room, we had very good photographs of the thief. After days of hard work we were able to discover from the security film how the theft had been carried out and how the items had been smuggled out of the reading room. On the second day after the incident, I warned my fellow directors in the Nordic national libraries and in a number of university libraries with historical collections. Nevertheless, the following week the thief or his accomplice visited Helsinki University Library, and later we discovered that they had been in the Royal Library in The Hague at almost the same time, as well as some months earlier, and in the Royal Library in Stockholm on numerous occasions from the autumn of 2000 onwards.https://liberquarterly.eu/article/view/10299
spellingShingle Erland Kolding Nielsen
Library Security Management: An Introduction
Liber Quarterly: The Journal of European Research Libraries
title Library Security Management: An Introduction
title_full Library Security Management: An Introduction
title_fullStr Library Security Management: An Introduction
title_full_unstemmed Library Security Management: An Introduction
title_short Library Security Management: An Introduction
title_sort library security management an introduction
url https://liberquarterly.eu/article/view/10299
work_keys_str_mv AT erlandkoldingnielsen librarysecuritymanagementanintroduction