NCJ Number
126535
Date Published
1990
Length
0 pages
Annotation
Four Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) staff members and 40 volunteers use the OCLC database to help the FBI inventory more than 20,000 stolen rare books and manuscripts to help locate their possible owners.
Abstract
The video briefly describes the case of finding 20,000 rare books stored in a house in Omaha, Nebraska, and how the FBI turned to OCLC as an alternative, additional resource to develop an inventory of the books to return them to their owners. The inventory was prepared faster by using the OCLC database than it could have been done by the FBI alone. The project took 44 catalogers and reference librarian volunteers 600 hours over a 4-week period to inventory 19 tons of rare books, manuscripts, and incunabula. The video describes how OCLC was searched, achieving a 93- to 95-percent rate of hits to develop a detailed, bibliographic description of each item and a related list of possible owners. The team members describe their feelings, indicating that they felt it was a honor to be able to handle and see items that they would normally never have the chance to see up close and that it was also a duty of librarians to try to return these items to their owner libraries.