Camden New Journal - Letters: Maps

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Camden New Journal - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 6 September 2007

Disappearing maps

• RONALD Milne of the British Library complains that a persistent map thief has been sent to jail for only three and a half years, saying that the sentence (along with a restitution order) does not represent a commensurate punishment and won’t act as ‘a serious deterrent to other would-be thieves of cultural property’ (Mystery of library’s missing maps August 30).
It is up to libraries themselves to protect their property and not allow a reader (how many more are there?) to remove valuable parts of volumes on 97 occasions over an eight-year period both in London and other cities, and in America. And what ‘commensurate punishment’ has their staff faced for this negligence, reprimands, dismissal or even prosecution? None, of course. Like a certain category of manuscripts in the British Library, valuable printed books, especially those with illustrations and maps, should only be issued to specially accredited readers and then read in a designated area under constant surveillance. Sustained vigilance is the only serious deterrent to thieves – in libraries as well as elsewhere.
JAMES COLLINS
Belsize Grove, NW3

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, Camden New Journal, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@camdennewjournal.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Tuesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld. Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number. Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

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