Commerce : Library to Install Security System

These thieves love reference books, new bestsellers and the Bible.

Stuffing volumes under coats or in handbags, the culprits make off with 582 books each year from the city’s three libraries, running up the replacement tab to about $26,000 annually. Library officials have had enough.

Within six months, the Central Library at 5655 Jillson St. will be equipped with a $40,000 security system to protect its $4-million collection. An alarm will sound when materials are taken from the building without being processed.

The system, approved last month by the City Council, is long overdue, library officials said. “I believe every library around us has one,” said Robert Conover, library director. “Our theft hasn’t been exceptionally high, but it’s annoying.”

Though the city has a daytime population of about 12,000, the library has 15,000 patrons with active library cards. As budget cuts force other city and county libraries to close or cut their hours, the Commerce Central Library has become a haven for many readers, a dependable place to find materials and a quiet place to study.

Commerce has closed one library branch and cut 49 hours from others, but library use during the past five years has increased 45%, said Carrie Coolbaugh, assistant library director.