Intern stole Civil War Papers

Denning McTague, an intern at at the National Archives, stole 164 Civil War documents. (Story here) He pad put about 150 of them on eBay and sold half of them before a company specializing in Civil War books spotted them on eBay and notified officials. The maximum sentence is 10 years (plus a hefty fine), but I doubt he will serve much time, if any.

This really bothers me: Stealing documents, lack of time served, etc. This guy was put in charge of organizing these documents. He has degrees in history and library science. How could he do something like this? He should know better. What drives a person to steal $30,000 in documents?

The subject of my archives seminar in library school was on security. It was a current topic since the historical society Museum had had several significant thefts in the previous decade -- both internal. When it comes down to it, most thefts are internal. A friend in class wrote a paper on one of the thefts, she wanted to focus on how something like that happens it really shakes up the staff. You work with these people and there is a lot of trust between employees. When one of your coworkers betrays that trust and steals these items you are being paid to preserve, catalog, display, etc., it's upsetting. Even ten years after one theft my friend found that people would still get visibly upset when they talked about it. I found the same thing to be true when I talked about both thefts with someone that had worked with both people.

What makes a person do this? It seems to boil down to money. One things experts say to look for is a sudden needs for money? A sick child, debt, etc. There is often an extreme change in behavior. I wonder what set this McTague guy over the edge? And kudos to the company that spotted the documents online and notified authorities.

I doubt this guy will serve much time. Unfortunately, stealing documents, maps, rare books, etc., is not seen as a big deal by many people -- law enforcement included. Many see it as "just stealing books." Putting a monetary value on the theft helps some, but not everyone gets it.

While in my seminar we discussed the library and archives professions response to theft. We read of cases where librarians posted reports of theft to a listserve in order to alert others. The librarian received hate email from other librarian for posting about the theft. We wondered why, and the only thing we could come up with was that some didn't want to admit there were security problems. For some time, security issues seemed to be a dirty secret within the profession. Hopefully, with more reports of things like this theft, others people will realize that this is indeed an issue that needs to be addressed and talked about.