Treatment of Mutilated Art Books: A Survey of Academic ARL Institutions

Abstract

Mutilation is an enduring problem faced by librarians utodduide The authors in this study iru.testigate hou both main and departmental art libraries at academic ARL institutions in the United States handle one specific tgpe of damaged materials----+rul.tilated art books. Findings reaeal that librarians at sunseyed ARL libraries report a problem uith mutilated art books almost uniaersally. These librarians haoe deoeloped a number of strategies for dealing with damaged art books, ranging from ignoring the mutilation to replacing the book to restricting future access to the item. Factors such as cost, im,portance of the uork, and amount of muti.Iation help librarians decide uhat actions uill be taken on mutilated art materi.als. Feto libraries haoe color photocopiers aoailable for patron use and rely more heaoilq on black-and-uhite photocopies thun color photocopies for replacement pages. Thompson 1968, Almagro 1985. When also members of the Association of Remutilated materials are discovered, lisearch Libraries (ARL) about their procebrarians have several options. They can dures with art materials. In this article, we repair,replace,ordiscardmutilatedmatedescribe the situation at Joyner Library rials. They can ignore the mutilation and that prompted the survey. We also discuss return the material to the collection. or the survev and its results. Finally, we sumthey can restrict future access to the mamarize the findings and suggesi areas {br terial by placing it in a special collection.further research. At East Carolina University'.s joyner East Carolina University (ECU) is one Library, we too are confronted with our of 16 universities that fbrm the University share of mutilated material. However, we of North Carolina System. Student enroliwere especiallv concerned with the mutiment at ECU tends to fluctuate between lation we discovered in art-related books, 17,000 and 18,000 students. This figure particularly the N and TR Library of Conincludes approximately 2,500 graduate gress (LC) classi{ication areas. In order to students and 300 students pursuing their ElIza.sstu H SltIrs (elismi@joyner.lib.ecu edu)

Library Vandalism: Causes And Prevention

“…For example, in four Indian university libraries, works written about Jehovah's Witnesses had their pages slashed and torn and were dumped into the garbage. Smith and Olszak (2011), do not believe that complete elimination of materials mutilation is possible. However, they suggest that understanding the types of materials that are most frequently mutilated is the first step in reducing the problem.…”