UCD Library spent €30,000 replacing defaced books last year.
1,200 new titles and editions of books were bought in order to replace damaged versions this year. This meant that the library could not purchase new titles with this money as it had to replace damaged titles instead.
In order to highlight this issue UCD Library launched a “book care campaign” with the hashtag #dontudare.
The campaign states “Our aim is to draw attention to the unacceptable levels of book defacement and damage found in many titles. Our printed collection is a resource for the current and future UCD community and clearly most users value it. But unfortunately, there are some users whose treatment of the books is not acceptable.”
Books are considered defaced when they are highlighted, underlined, doodled or commentated on.
The library launched a publicity campaign during the month of October in which they posted on social media, printed posters and postcards and even had a special display during a week in October, showing some of the defaced titles.
The library will run a similar campaign in February 2017, to highlight the issue further.
Advertisements