Library Upgrading Security in Wake of Stolen DVDs

The is looking to upgrade security as more than 120 DVDs appear to have been stolen over the past several months, Library Director Allan Kleiman said Wednesday.

The first incident came to librarians' attention about three months ago when patrons approached the desk to check out the DVDs and found they were not in their cases. Kleiman said the same situation was noticed about three weeks ago and the library is now considering upgrading security to ensure the library items are not stolen. Before these incidents, the library had a collection of about 4,400 DVDs.

"We want to safeguard the collection for the entire community," Kleiman said.

Kleiman said under the library's current system, which is 15 years old, cases for all audio visual materials are tagged, but the library is unable to use tags on the discs themselves. Kleiman said he has seen YouTube videos of how to remove the tags from the cases, but he did not expect this type of behavior to happen in .

"This is not a problem unique to us. I guess the shock that we all have is we can't believe it's happening in Montville, just because it's Montville," he said.

Kleiman said he is mostly disappointed in the DVDs being stolen because the library offers the materials to be checked out for free with a library card.

"We just try to bend over backwards to make sure everyone has a card so that people don't do this," he said.

The DVDs are currently stored in the back of the library, a location that is somewhat out of sight from many of the librarians. One of the measures Kleiman said the library is considering is moving the DVDs to a location closer to the front desk. He also noted that none of the children's DVDs were stolen, as he said those are stored closer to the front, and that there was no particular genre of stolen DVDs and that it was a mix.

Kleiman did not want to speculate on who could be responsible for the stolen DVDs but said it could be "a kid doing a prank" or possibly just a person or persons taking them. But as a result, the library must do something to protect what it has.

Kleiman said there are three prongs of upgrading security, all with different methods. First, the library will look into upgrading security for books; second, the library will consider where to place security cameras and third, upgraded security for audio visual materials will be considered. 

The cost of this upgraded security has not yet been decided but Kleiman said he has been asked to develop a report and present it to the Montville Township Library Board of Trustees at the June 11 meeting.