We've had security gates for over 20 years. I imagine they are effective. We had over 500 lost items from the shelves prior to installing them. In doing inventory, in a collection that is much larger than 20 years ago, we have less than that today.
That said, unless I were experiencing a lot of theft, or had special collections or expensive collection I was trying to protect, I'd think twice about it. Consider the total cost of ownership-- gates, theft strips-- over a 3-5 year period of time and compare that to the replacement and labor cost for replacement. If you break even, I wouldn't do it. Running interference with false alarms and the problems of self-check systems to effectively demagnitize AV material (if you are going to go to self-check systems) can be PR nightmares, especially in a smaller community such as yours. While we as librarians have some righteous indignation related to theft, there may be better ways to manage high theft items, even if it means handing over music to the customer, for example, leaving only cases on display as is done at Blockbuster. I think that RFID will be more effective, but that can be more costly as well. At this point, we no longer secure certain collections, but the public is not aware of this. The main reason for keeping up with the system is to protect genealogy and reference materials. Genealogy is hard to replace and much of the collection belongs to the county genealogy society, and we have some very costly reference materials. We also strip certain paintings, and other non-book/av material. By not stripping collections we are less concerned about, we reduce costs and false alarms, concentrating on the vital few. Dale ________________________________ From: [email protected] [[email protected]] On Behalf Of Laurie Mahaffey [[email protected]] Sent: Monday, March 30, 2009 7:55 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [ctls-l] FW: theft detection systems Another request for information. If you have experience with these, please reply to the list. Thanks. Laurie Laurie Mahaffey, Deputy Director Central Texas Library System, Inc. 1005 West 41st Street Austin, Texas 78756 www.ctls.net<http://www.ctls.net> [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> 512-583-0704 x18 800-262-4431 x18 ________________________________ From: Ann Brock [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, March 27, 2009 4:44 PM Subject: theft detection systems I am asking for recommendations for manufacturers of book theft detection sensors/gates along with their comments as to whether the installations have proven successful or not? And if they have had any problems with service in this part of the state or not. Thanks, Ann ************************************ Ann Brock Director Bertram Free Library P. O. Box 243 Bertram, TX. 78605 512-355-2113 512-355-3323 fax
