Dr. Billington recently announced further steps to tighten security and protect the Library's 108 million books, maps, prints and other items from theft and mutilation.
"Our number one concern has to be to protect the collections," he said. "Since 1992, we have been putting extra resources into combatting this threat, which afflicts all libraries. We cannot relax because there will always be those who will attempt to plunder the nation's heritage for private gain. We can't afford to let bureaucracy hinder our continuing efforts to deal with the threat."
Dr. Billington has directed the LC police to increase patrols of the stacks. All police detectives have been reassigned to the Assistant Inspector General's office. Dr. Billington has ordered the LC Office of the Inspector General to work closely with the U.S. Attorney's Office on internal investigations, aided by the FBI.
At the behest of Senator Connie Mack (R.-Fla.), chairman of the Senate legislative branch appropriations subcommittee, with Dr. Billington's concurrence, the General Accounting Office will be working with LC on a review of specific security operations. Moreover, the Library has engaged a security consultant firm, Computer Sciences Corp., to take a fresh overall look at LC collections, security systems and procedures.
Dr. Billington acted early last month after receiving reports from staff of mutilations discovered in the Library's general collections in the Jefferson Building as well as complaints from the U.S. Attorney's Office that LC was not reporting all mutilations, as agreed upon in 1993, to the U.S. Attorney. As an internal inquiry got underway, Mike Shelley, special assistant to the Librarian, was temporarily assigned to head the Office of Protective Services.
The Library barred the public and most Library staffers from the stacks in 1992. This move came after an internal survey and two separate incidents of theft and mutilation involving outsiders who razored out illustrations from rare books held in the Jefferson Building. Both men were identified by Library police, arrested by the FBI, tried and convicted of theft of federal property.
Since 1992, the Library has spent almost $4 million to install surveillance cameras in the stacks and reading rooms, put rare books in locked cages, and require members of the public ordering Library materials to have photo IDs. Other steps have been taken or are planned. Library officials said some 700 -- out of 4,700 -- Library staffers have special passes and cards read by electronic devices giving them access to the stacks to do their jobs. To make surveillance easier, this number is likely to be cut, Library officials said, even as other measures are taken.
