
A Rare-Book Thief Who Looted College Libraries in the ’80s - ilamont
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/james-shinn-book-thief
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13of40
Not going to say exactly where, just in case it's still like that (which I
doubt, because this is a story from the early 90's), but... When I was a
teenager, I used to skip school a lot and spend time in and around the
university library that was several blocks away from the high school. They had
maybe four floors of books, and they were protected by the same kind of anti-
shoplifting tag system they use in stores now. The basement floor had a
section of the library that hadn't yet been upgraded from the Dewey Decimal
System, and if you hunted around, you could find books from the 1700s or
earlier.

At any rate, they had two security flaws that would have made it very easy to
loot: First, they were apparently giving priority to new books while
installing security tags, and the vast majority of the books in the "old"
section didn't have them. Second, they'd inexplicably rerouted traffic inside
the lower section such that you could get to the rest of the library via one
route without being scanned, but you could pass through a scanner via another
route, without ever leaving the secure area. So the scam would be to root
around and find an ancient and valuable tome in the old section, exit to the
rest of the library, then come back in the other direction to test whether it
would trigger the alarm. If it did, you'd just explain that you were returning
from one of the upper floors. If it didn't, then you could throw the book in
your backpack and walk out the front door with it.

(Needless to say, I took the square route in life and never became a dark and
sinister merchant of purloined books.)

~~~
dingaling
My university's library had 12 floors with a sensor at the ground level at the
only non-emergency exit.

However having been built in the 1960s without air conditioning it had top-
hinged opening windows. I saw quite a few students over the years simply
opening a window on one of the lower floors and dropping a book down to an
accomplice standing outside.

The replacement library is entirely air-conditioned with non-opening windows!

~~~
wyclif
A truly dedicated thief won't be deterred by limited access points. There's
always an element of sociopathy in these people, so they won't think twice
about doing something like pulling a fire alarm when they're ready to make off
with the loot, so that everybody in the building has to get out fast without
being scanned.

It doesn't matter at all to them that they've inconvenienced hundreds or even
thousands of people in their determination to get what they want, and that is
precisely the weakness they exploit in the standard physical security
playbook.

------
Mz
_Shinn’s motel room contained 26 stolen books and a file full of inventory
cards for another 154 volumes. He was well-educated in book history,
restoration and binding, and the tools of his trade filled the room: color-
stained cloths and Q-tips with jars of shoe polish, used to color-match and
conceal library markings on book spines._

I was raised with a certain respect for books, but my ex was a great deal more
of a bibliophile than I am. He set a very high bar for how to handle and store
books carefully and respectfully. Our home was full of little bibliophile
accessories, like bookmarks and book darts and special magnifying glasses.

The above paragraph strikes a certain horror in me and makes me imagine my ex
being inspired to violence in the face of it.

~~~
cr0sh
> The above paragraph strikes a certain horror in me

So you prefer a library's handling of a book over a restoration?

I'm not trying to defend the guy's actions - I just find your reaction
curious.

As a bibliophile myself (though certainly not one like your ex - I certainly
wasn't aware of such a thing as "book darts", and I certainly know nothing
about "special magnifying glasses"), who along with my wife own a quite large
collection of fiction and non-fiction books, I find that - while I understand
the purpose - libraries tend to treat books poorly (to a certain extent) in
the effort to catalog and preserve them; however, without these efforts, the
books couldn't be shared and cataloged properly.

Things have gotten better with the addition of barcodes (I wonder if hi-
density QR codes have been used?), but practices of the past still linger.

Shinn's efforts - though put to the purposes of deception and fraud - to an
extent possibly made the books more aesthetically pleasing. If there is
"horror" to be considered, it would be whether or not doing what he did caused
ruin to the book, which would depend on his skills and the book of course. For
instance, having the original pages, even with markings, is likely of more
value than having restored pages, though the restored pages might be better to
look upon (and he must have been able to do and exceedingly fine job, in order
for the books to pass the scrutiny of collectors and such paying top-dollar
for the books).

It's really too bad he went this route with his life; given the little I know
from this article, it sounds like his talents could have been most useful for
book restoration and preservation efforts...

~~~
Mz
He did things like buy books full of illustrations, took them apart entirely
and sold each plate individually because this was essentially untraceable
(IIRC). He was not lovingly restoring these books. He was a book predator and
the object was financial gain.

My reaction is more to the idea of seeing this stuff and knowing the intent
was not at all good. Kind of like the movie scene showing instruments that
make it clear the Morlocks eat humans and these instruments are used to kill
them, prepare them as meat, etc. I have no fear of, say, knives per se. But in
a certain context, it becomes clear what the intent of the instrument is and
this can be horrifying.

------
LyndsySimon
This reminds me of Mauricio Aguirre, who stole quite a bit of money by
deception from people in the high-end fountain pen world:

[http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/9771-fraud-
wri...](http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/9771-fraud-writ-large-
con-man-roils-world-of-fountain/)

~~~
dang
Less glamorous, but more bibliographic, was the guy who wrote the novel from
which Kubrick made _Full Metal Jacket_.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Hasford#Library_books_t...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Hasford#Library_books_theft_charges)

------
supernumerary
Larcenous provenances are very common when dealing in antiquities. I imagine
much of the looting be it - from public libraries or ancient cities is
justified with the thought: 'I simply value it more.'

------
Lyaserkiev
A book thief in Brazil who stole 303 books, the 27 most expensive ones are
worth between USD 120k and USD 160k.

[https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=pt&tl=en&js=y&prev...](https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=pt&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=pt-
BR&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fbrasil.estadao.com.br%2Fnoticias%2Frio-de-
janeiro%2Cufrj-sofre-o-maior-furto-de-livros-raros-do-
brasil%2C70001757824&edit-text=)

------
readhn
This is similar to a hacker who finds a bug in banks security system and
exploits it for personal financial gain.

What would be great if they pardoned the guy in exchange for his service to
improve library security around the country so that the next guy in the '90s
would not steal 5x more books...

once case goes public - its just a matter of time before copy cats appear.
government is too slow to learn..

~~~
45h34jh53k4j
Nah, once you are stealing books from a public university you have crossed the
ethical line. I think crimes against libraries rate up there as some of the
worst social or even war crimes, similar to the destruction of ancient
historical landmarks.

It is good this person can not anymore deprive future generations of readers
books and the knowledge they contain.

~~~
enraged_camel
>> I think crimes against libraries rate up there as some of the worst social
or even war crimes, similar to the destruction of ancient historical
landmarks.

So let me get this straight: you believe that stealing books from libraries is
the equivalent of, say, massacring civilians during wars?

~~~
function_seven
Some very interesting thought experiments arise from this. Imagine these rare
books are worth $5 million at auction.

$5 million can do a tremendous amount of good. It can feed a lot of people,
educate a small village from birth to adulthood, save hundreds of lives from
Malaria and other mosquito-born diseases, and pay for many other life-saving
medical interventions.

Should the library sell the books and spend the money on the above items?

I know my analogy doesn't quite jive with the civilian-massacre-vs-book-
thieving choice. But hopefully it shows just how immensely important libraries
are. Had the Library at Alexandria not been destroyed, there's no telling how
much earlier our civilization would have advanced to the relatively peaceful
time we live in now.

I guess the difference between then and now is that we have the ability to
digitize all these rare works. That should be one of the highest priorities
for our civilization these days. Get them digitized and replicated. There's
still the storage medium problems, but with enough replication, we can
hopefully ensure the durability of all that information nonetheless.

~~~
true_religion
Yes. Knowledge is important... particularly old books are much less so.

I wouldn't really mind it if all the knowledge of the library of Alexandria
were preserved due to backups located 20 miles away, whilst the old originals
burned.

~~~
function_seven
Yeah, the knowledge is the most important part. But there's still the issue of
public ownership of valuable items.

Let's assume the entire contents of a rare book—or let's say a famous
renaissance painting—is digitized at high quality. Is it a moral failing for a
public library or museum to hold on to the work instead of converting it to
cash and spending that cash on life-saving initiatives? Is valuing these
original works an irrational thing that we humans do? I can't logically argue
for keeping the works, yet I think something would be lost if all art was sold
to the highest bidder and the proceeds used for charity.

