James Loyd, head of the children’s section, said staff have discovered 494 books with one or more pages removed. “We now have thousands of dollars of damage,” Sherman added. “We have also found he has been in the adult section, books on coaching children or on sex. What was really terrible is these were the new books.”
Beth Dean, director of youth services for the Huntsville–Madison County Public Library, said library officials began an investigation last fall after being alerted by librarians at the Athens-Limestone Public Library. She said in the March 2 Huntsville Times that some 800 books are damaged, while Athens director Susan Todd estimated about 400 books were vandalized in her library last summer.
Decatur police said they have a suspect, but because library circulation records are destroyed once the books are returned, they lack sufficient evidence to make an arrest. An initial investigation of Huntsville’s library records led to a 26-year-old local man last October, but Dean said she understands the man—who has been barred from checking out any more books—has moved.
Posted March 4, 2005.