-------- Original Message --------
Subject:        ID'ing stolen maps confiscated in Montana...
Date:   Sat, 05 Apr 2008 11:08:39 -0400
From:   Frank Wihbey <[log in to unmask]>
To:     [log in to unmask]
CC:     [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask]


Dear Rob and colleagues:

Though owners can't be identified right now, there is a high probability that many are
(unknown so far) in groups from the same libraries, a finite numbers.
Invisible to us, but to dogs , with 1000 times our capacity to smell, there should
be some distinguishable smell.  I know my library has a certain smell (not bad,
just distinct and "booky") that I sense when I first return after a long vacation.
Further, the individual map cases and map rooms  may have distinct odors
form carpeting, that can't be detected by us humans, but are obvious to dogs.
I am not suggesting that all 10,000 should be sniffed!  But if a large enough
sample  could be canine-sniffed, they would start to fall into groups.
Also it is likely that the thief would not have stolen the same map multiple times, or at least a
low number of times, thus augmenting the uniqueness of  each profile.
Then those unique combinations of stolen maps (subsets of the thefts from
any given library) should begin to give a profile that can be matched against libraries' "missing" list,

What do you think?

Frank Wihbey
University of Maine Library
Orono, Maine


[log in to unmask] writes:
>This topic is being discussed on multiple lists and I find Robert
>Lopresti's questions below compelling. Forwarded from GovDocs-L
>
>
>4.  What should happen to the approximately 20,000 maps and other prints
>that were confiscated in Montana and have no identifying markings?  (I'd
>love to hear your ideas.)
>
>Rob
>
>Rob Lopresti
>Government Information Librarian, WL Liaison for Huxley College
>Western Washington University
>360-650-3342   [log in to unmask]
>