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----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Dear colleagues in the art library world, We, in Ohio, have recently discovered a very disturbing new trend in vandalism in our libraries, and I would like to bring it to your attention and ask if you have experienced the same. For several months many of the academic libraries in Ohio have been aware of someone vandalizing library books by razoring out pictures of young boys. The images are usually photographs, are almost never provocative, erotic, or otherwise likely candidates for razoring, in fact to the contrary the pictures are usually quite innocent images of young boys (adolescents). Often if the young boy appears in an image with other people or objects, only the young boy has been razored out. We believe the vandalism occurs in the library, and not by a person who checks out the material. The books that have been damaged are not always art books, as some of them fall into other library subject categories such as geography, history, etc. This has been going on for at least several months. Many of us thought the problem was unique to our library, and did not realize that this was occurring across the state. Only when we attempted to borrow our colleagues copies via ILL did we realize that the same books were missing the same images in multiple locations across the state. University police at the various locations have been called in to investigate. One theory (and it is only a theory at this point, we have no definite leads) is that there might be an Internet site that encourages this activity, rather like the fetish for Absolut Vodka ads we all witnessed awhile ago. For that reason, I would like to ask you: 1) are you aware of this problem in your library, specifically related to images of young boys? 2) have you heard anything about this phenomenon that would help us put an end to this? Thank you for any information you can share. Please respond DIRECTLY TO ME ([log in to unmask]) and not to the list. Susan Wyngaard, Head Fine Arts Library Ohio State University Wexner Center for the Arts Columbus, Ohio 43210 tel&fax: 614-292-6184 email: [log in to unmask]