ABSTRACT

We have seen that crime and disruption in public buildings, including libraries, often reflects the patterns of crime in the surrounding community. An urban library tends to have crime and disruption problems similar to those of other urban libraries but distinct from problems in the smaller libraries. Libraries in rural areas may have much in common with each other when it comes to problems of crime, but are unlike their urban counterparts. Similar patterns may be found even when comparing problems across national borders. That is, a large British library may have more in common with a large American or Canadian library than with a small British institution.