marginalia

marginalia and other crimes. cambridge university library.

case 2 - borrowable stock, damage outside the library
some damage is accidental. books get damaged in house-fires, in floods when water-pipes burst and other unforeseen accidents. readers pay for replacement copies. and these expense may be covered by their household insurance policies.
water, fire, miscellaneous, ink, coffee, not OK for bath, not OK for bath, OK for bath, rain,bottle of water

case 3 - damage by animals, small humans and birds
other damage that might be grouped under the heading of carelessness includes: books chewed by dogs, children's artistic additions to the text, books chewed by mice.
dog, dog, mice, mice, mice, child's sticker, child's sticker, child's scribbling, child's scribbling, pigeon droppings?, safe keeping - a plastic bag

case 4 - marginalia
these examples of marginal notes are typical of much of the damage done to our stock. although pencil marks can be erased, however carefully the marks are removed, it does damage the text. and if a text is marked and erased a few times it is ruined.
ink, signed, signed, comments on comments, comments on comments, single author many books, single author many books, ?, international

case 5 - colored marginalia
marked text comes in many colors. the use of color-changing pencils, in these two examples, helped identify the culprit.
pencil crayon, pencil crayon, highlighter one color, highlighter multiple colors, highlighter multiple colors, underlines in ink, marginal comments as well, highlighter multiple colors, highlighter multiple colors, underlines in ink, marginal comments as well

case 6 - pencil marking and adhesive notes
pencil marking, whole page, whole page, small amounts in ink - still pay for whole book, adhesive notes, adhesive notes, adhesive notes, adhesive notes

case 7 - physical damage
how the UL responds to the damage
accidents: books damaged by accident are replaced with the same edition. the reader is charged the replacement price plus an administration charge. the damaged copy is stored at 'class z'. some readers ask to have the damaged copy but it is not permitted. the new copy is put at the same location, with the same classmark, that the damaged copy originally had.
defacement: books damaged deliberately are replaced with the same edition. the reader is charged the replacement price plus an administration charge. the library syndicate levies a fine of up to £175, depending on the circumstances. on the first offense, once all fines are paid, the reader usually retains their privilege of using UL. we have not had a case of a second offense. these matters are usually settled in-house. but replacement costs quickly accumulate into large sums. one case cost the reader £2,500 in total.
abstraction: ripping pages from texts is regarded as theft. the police may be involved and readers who are successfully prosecuted lose all their privileges to use UL forever. texts are replaced and stored at higher levels of security. the original copy is retained at class z.
tearing out pages, tearing out pages, tearing out pages, cutting out photo