Art and Library Vandalism.

[Thipu1]

There's been an ineresting and entertaining discussion about this on the 'Special Snowflake' thread.

There have also been suggestions that this topic deserves a thread of its own.  Let's start one. 

Any librarian  knows that the 'Sports Illustrated' Swimsuit Issue lasts about 20 minutes from the time it is put on the shelves until it is stolen.  Back in the 1980s and 1990s magazines containing ads for Absolut vodka were also high-risk items for theft or vandalism.

There must be other good stories out there. 

To facilitate discussion, cake and assorted beverages will be served in the staff lounge.     

[mbbored]

Not the library, but my mother used to edit our books as children. When my sister had the first grandchild, we pulled out all the old kids books in the house, and found she had whited out words then carefully written in substitutions. Farmer McGregor wanted to invite Peter Rabbit for lunch, not eat him. Bambi's mother never died and there were no flying monkeys or melted witch in the Wizard of Oz.

[m2kbug]

In line with the blanked out words, my ex-husband still had a few books from the high school days' required reading.  All the naughty words were blacked out with a marker. 

[Luci45]

Elementary school librarian here - we just tossed the swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated. Now that I think about it, we should have sold it on Craig's List or something. But a bunch of 4-6th grade boys in the corner ogling it was just too much. (I don't condone censorship, by the way. I fought for Huckleberry Finn and won!

A mother came in all upset about a book as simple as The Life of Kittens. The first pages had a drawn picture of the cross-section of the cat's uterus about midstage through the pregnancy. The woman came in, demanded the book be taken off the shelf. Fortunately, I wasn't in yet as I would have laughed and said, "Did you crochet your kids?" which is exactly what I said to my supervisor when she told me the story. She laughed and pulled the book for 2 years.

[DollyPond]

My friend who works for a major bookstore chain (the only one left actually) says that the art books are the ones most frequently stolen from the stores.  Who knew!

[Luci45]

My friend who works for a major bookstore chain (the only one left actually) says that the art books are the ones most frequently stolen from the stores.  Who knew!

Greek statues! of course.

[Thipu1]

My friend who works for a major bookstore chain (the only one left actually) says that the art books are the ones most frequently stolen from the stores.  Who knew!

Greek statues! of course.

I certainly don't condone the practice of stealing art books but, in a way, I can understand it.  Good art books tend to be both expensive and beautiful. My guess is that books on the Impressionists are stolen as often as books on Greek art.     

I remember an old New Yorker cartoon.  It shows a museum guard standing in front of a sign.  The sign reads,

'1st floor...Big crazy paintings
2nd floor...Nice country scenes
3rd floor...Kings, queens and naked statues'

I think that says quite a bit about the popular perception of art. 

[Yarnspinner]

Thipu:  We keep Sports Illustrated (and almost every popular stealable magazine) behind our desk and put dummy copies on the shelf.  In order for the patron to get the real magazine they have to leave us with something valuable (we specify library card, but patrons leave us everything from driver's license to engraved cigarette lighter to EBT Cards.  One woman walks in, hands us her house keys and then goes back and forth for the New York Post (yes, it gets stolen), People, and Cosmopolitan, Essence, Rolling Stone,  Ebony and Jet.  It works pretty well, considering theft is almost a way of life here.  It continues to amaze me, though, what people will steal.

[gmama]

Former bookstore clerk here.  My section included art and photography.  We had a whole wall of expensive photography books (several with nudes in them) and, unfortunately, part of it was tucked away in a corner not easily visible by staff.  The worst was when we would find books with sticky pages.   

Yeah, ew.

[Slartibartfast]

I had to explicitly make a rule stating "no licking the magazines" because I had a group of teenage boys who thought it was hilarious to open all the JET magazines to the centerfolds and then suggestively lick the pictures.

[Morrigan]

Thipu:  We keep Sports Illustrated (and almost every popular stealable magazine) behind our desk and put dummy copies on the shelf.  In order for the patron to get the real magazine they have to leave us with something valuable (we specify library card, but patrons leave us everything from driver's license to engraved cigarette lighter to EBT Cards.  One woman walks in, hands us her house keys and then goes back and forth for the New York Post (yes, it gets stolen), People, and Cosmopolitan, Essence, Rolling Stone,  Ebony and Jet.  It works pretty well, considering theft is almost a way of life here.  It continues to amaze me, though, what people will steal.

We had to put our US Weekly, Entertainment Weekly, People & one other one (another one like those..) behind the reference desk (we're on the 2nd floor with the magazines while the circ desk is on the 1st floor with all the fiction, teen & children's).

We had to put them behind the ref desk because we were finding the back cover of every dingdangity magazine.  Just the back cover (which has our barcode & the 'cannot be checked out' sticker).  overall, we lost well over two dozen issues before we fixed the problem.

Now, we take names before we give them the magazine they want.

[demarco]

I worked for a time in the special collections department of a university library.  We were responsible for archives, rare books, and nudie magazines, all of which were kept in stacks restricted to staff only.  Anyone wanting to see our materials had to produce ID and sign in.  When I started working there I thought it was hilarious that they kept the porn with the antique tomes and personal papers of regional luminaries  but it was explained to me that magazines like Playboy were stolen or valdalized the day they hit the shelves when they were openly available.  it was either keep them locked up or cancel the subscriptions. 

[oceanus]

Back in the 1980s and 1990s magazines containing ads for Absolut vodka were also high-risk items for theft or vandalism.

I don't remember these - were they provocative?

[wolfie]

Back in the 1980s and 1990s magazines containing ads for Absolut vodka were also high-risk items for theft or vandalism.

I don't remember these - were they provocative?

No - they just had a really cool ad campaign.

https://www.google.com/search?q=absolut+vodka+ads&hl=en&client=Flamingvixen-a&hs=DHO&tbo=u&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ei=zD8YUfOUBKbg0QG_zYFY&ved=0CDAQsAQ&biw=1440&bih=736

[Jones]

Back in the 1980s and 1990s magazines containing ads for Absolut vodka were also high-risk items for theft or vandalism.

I don't remember these - were they provocative?

No - they just had a really cool ad campaign.

https://www.google.com/search?q=absolut+vodka+ads&hl=en&client=Flamingvixen-a&hs=DHO&tbo=u&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ei=zD8YUfOUBKbg0QG_zYFY&ved=0CDAQsAQ&biw=1440&bih=736

I remember using their ads for various school assignments, some of them were pretty awesome.