>
>Has anyone ever seen a fake security system used? If so, did it help
>any? Since the archives are available to anyone, you might want to
>reply directly to me. I'll post a summary on Friday, of the format
>"X schools have fake security systems, and they report no change in
>losses, Y schools have fake security systems, and they report a
>decrease in losses." I won't even put in any state information. I
>will include any pertinent comments, but again, nothing that would
>give anything away.
Kids "tested" our system all the time...one of two ways. Either
trying to smuggle out a book on their own, or (more often) putting a
book in someone else's backpack or purse to embarrass that
person. The alarm always went off, often to the great glee of the
perp. I always politely took the person aside, and had them empty
out their bag/purse. We reset the gate and let others out. We
didn't mind all that much since this demonstrated that there really
WAS a security system in operation. The deterant value was worth
it. Imagine if students 'tested' the system and *nothing* happened
because it was a fake system. Word would spread VERY fast, and books
would start to disappear, since the students all realized with the
large numbers of students that used the library, there would be no
way we could manually search every book bag and purse upon exit. I
should add that we did not check out books to anyone with overdue
items. Most often, it was those people who tried to lift books to
use for reports and such. They were welcome to use the material in
the library but not check out, so they tried to smuggle them out.
One downside of a security system: some of our students obviously
came from a school where materials were protected with the Checkpoint
system. There, the 'target' is usually concealed behind the date due
pocket, so these students would tear out one or more pages in the
front of the book, hoping to foil the system. It didn't, of course
since the 3M system doesn't use those targets. Others apparently
thought that the bar code was the target and would tear them
out. *That* caused a lot of problems for us, since many items had
escaped having the bar code number written in the book somewhere when
processed.
Mark Williams
Consulting Librarian
Professional Services for Conferences, Districts, Workshops
markwilliams@makaw.net
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