(4) $A = \begin{vmatrix} 1 & -2 \\ 3 & 4 \end{vmatrix}$ $B = \begin{vmatrix} 5 & 7 \\ 8 & 9 \end{vmatrix}$ $C = \begin{vmatrix} 0 & 6 \\ 7 & 8 \end{vmatrix}$
Monday. April 17, 1961 University Daily Kansan
Page 3
Watson Library Losses - Borrowed or Stolen?
By Lynn Cheatum
Borrowed and forgotten — or stolen? That is what Watson Library officials are constantly wondering about missing books.
"I don't like to use the word 'stolen,'" said Robert L. Quinsey, assistant director of libraries, reader's service. "This carries a connotation I don't care for. I think most people are basically honest. I'd want strong evidence before I'd carry it that far."
"PEOPLE REACT differently to different kinds of pressure. When pressure is really heavy, students are less honest. When they have big class assignments, term papers, exams and a high demand on a few copies of a book, some students think they must keep the book for themselves, rather than risk having a classmate check it out.
John M. Nugent, head librarian of the circulation department added:
"We get a rush on books around midsemester and right before spring vacation. After vacation people work on the term papers they have put off until late.
"SOME PEOPLE take a book early in the semester and usually return it at the end of the semester. These people don't have a regard for other users.
"Too many people are careless with books and leave them lying around the house or dorm. A couple of years ago a boy went through a fraternity house and found 25 library books, some of them overdue for two or three years."
Mr. Quinsey observed:
"I DON'T THINK it would do any good to put a uniformed policeman at the door."
Joyce McLeod, head librarian of the reference department, pointed out that the State University of Iowa is one of the several libraries which have a guard at the exit to inspect books leaving the library. She expressed concern over the need for any library to post a guard.
"It is a problem of social morality. People think in terms of their own problem. They think they need a book so desperately that they take
the book, often knowing that other students will be looking for that very book.
"WE ARE DISTRESSED that people don't consider it a very great crime. Some students who steal magazines must not realize that we bind magazines. They think of it as a 25-cent item. They don't know we have to make out a special order for a new copy."
Mr. Quinsey explained:
"When we learn a book is missing, it is extremely difficult to determine what has happened to it. The most common source of difficulty is the case where the library record shows the book has not been returned and the student is certain he returned it.
"About half the time we learn we were wrong and the other half the student was mistaken. Sometimes the student finds the book under the front seat of his car or he learns that a friend had failed to return the book for him.
"WE TRY TO ASSUME sincerity. The only time a student gets angry is when he thinks he is being accused of stealing a book. You can't do business on that basis.
"Ive had books show up in the most unlikely places. One time we found a book at the bottom of the elevator shaft. I have no way of knowing how many disappear."
The assistant director lamented the attitudes of some students. He said:
"Many people don't realize that
we don't get any benefit from the fines we receive. That money is deposited in the University general account. Money from lost books is available for replacement of them, but some of the books can't be replaced. They are out of print."
MISS McLEOD ADDED:
"Most of our trouble (in the reference department) is the frustration that comes from knowing what book to use in answering the student's question but being unable to find the book.
"One thing I have never been able to find out is why students keep one volume of an encyclopedia. If they take home the volume T-U-V, for example, it may be useful for the limited number of topics in that volume. But it is almost worthless as a single book, apart from the rest of the set.
W. STUART FORTH, head of the undergraduate library, commented on the problems of the basement book bureau.
He said:
"Our major problem is with open shelves in the undergraduate library. Students are encouraged to browse, but apparently there is a vicious minority which browses and steals. Reserve books occasionally disappear, but with 12,000 reserve books in and out in a month the loss is relatively insignificant."
Mrs. L. A. Royer, staff member of the undergraduate library, explained
one reason for the small reserve loss She smiled:
"WE GET PRETTY GOOD co-operation from the students because of the stiff fine of $1.55 a day."
Mr. Quinsey noted that some students are ignorant of the functions of the library.
He said:
"In one case a student was sent the usual two notices without response from him. The third time he was sent a bill for the price of the book. The student was told that if he returned the book he would not have to pay the replacement price.
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"BUT THE HITCH was that he decided to use the book for the rest of the semester and return it at the end of the semester so his grades would not be withheld. The library has no way of forcing the student
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"The circulation department is attempting to keep track of half a million of the 900,000 volumes now held by the library. These 500,000 volumes are crowded into an area designed for 400,000 volumes.
to return the book, since the maximum fine is $3."
Borrowers' lack of persistence in getting a book was lamented by Mr. Nugent.
"WHEN SOMEONE ASKS for a certain book that is long overdue, we often tell the name of the person who has the book and let the person requesting the book go after it.
"I would never declare a book lost until the semester after its loss was noted. There are not many people who would out-and-out steal books for their own use, but that small percentage cheats other students out of the use of the books."
1832 Mass.