Vandalism as A Crime in Engineering College Libraries A Social Issue: A Study

Abstract

Reports a study carried out at the Engineering Colleges in Marathwada region, to find out students’ erception and attitudes towards vandalism in the library. To elicit the necessary information, aquestionnaire was distributed to 1000 randomly selected students of the colleges spread across the eleven colleges out of which 505 responded. Analysis of their responses showed that vandalism in library materials in the form of theft, mutilation and handing books and journals, is largely regarded as a form of academic self-survival strategy that is hardly frowned at by majority of the respondents.Factor that predispose to vandalism include limited library collection; unaffordable cost of personal text books, high cost of photocopying as well as peer-influence. Recommendations are made for liberalisation of loans, intensification of user education, provision of multiple copies of text books as well as use of effective security measures.