Posted on 02/21/2003 12:30:20 AM PST by Ed Straker
Swimsuit issue under wraps
Pilferers in spotlight as magazine hits libraries' shelves
By Joe Kovac Jr.
Telegraph Staff Writer
This time each year, when the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue comes out, librarians everywhere go on alert, on the lookout for visitors - guys mostly - who wouldn't know a Dewey decimal from a Mountain Dew.
It's not that libraries don't welcome newcomers, it's just that the reason they're there is obvious: The SI swimsuit models and their barely covered, um, reference sections.
So measures must be taken - along with library cards - to make sure the already leggy magazines don't "accidently" walk out on their own.
The magazine hadn't even made it to the library at Macon State College on Thursday, and already young men were pacing.
"There have been a lot of males wandering around the periodicals area, sniffing around, but they won't ask about it. I know they want it. I know they're just waiting. ... It's funny," the library's Lee Ann Shoemaker said.
When the 200-plus-page object of their affections does arrive, with what the magazine itself boasts are "an assortment of women who would make a Marine bite a hole in a tank," librarians bolster security.
"We put several, several pieces of what they call 'tattle tape' on them. It's that magnetic tape we put in the spines of all the books," Shoemaker said.
That way, when someone tries to slip out the door on the SI-sly, an alarm beeps.
Some high school libraries, including the one at Warner Robins High, subscribe to SI but ask the magazine not to send the swimsuit issue.
At Mercer University, the swimsuit issue isn't an issue. It basks in the open air, on the shelves alongside other magazines.
Theresa Preuit, Mercer library's head of circulation and reference, said, "There are always attempts to keep it behind a service desk where people have to ask for it and leave ID. ... But that's denying access, so it's downstairs on the first floor."
Of course, Preuit added, the easy access can be cause for alarm: "When someone tries to walk out with it and the alarm goes off, they're mortified. They say, 'I don't know how that got in my bag.'"
However, to scope out the security-tape-laced swimsuit issue at Macon's Washington Memorial Library, you have to leave your library card at the periodicals' desk.
Susan Lemme, a reference librarian there, said, "I won't say it's a major thing, but we're aware that it's gonna get heavy usage and is likely to be stolen."
As Lemme points out, though, the swimsuit special doesn't make the splash it used to.
"I would say that of the group of people who are normally not interested in it, the biggest group of people who look at it are the librarians themselves," she said.
"Just out of curiosity, to see what's gonna be in it this year that we need to be aware of, and how bad is it this year, and how ridiculous these girls look ... how ludicrous."
Exactly.
Ridiculous, ludicrous - and at bargain, free-peek prices.
Still, SI isn't the only thing that puts librarians on the lookout these days.
"Every once in a while we'll get someone who takes a fancy to something," Lemme said. "Like right now I've started losing my sports sections for USA Today. It's disappeared for the last three days."
And, because of that, to get your mitts on the sports page now you have to fork over ID.
Same applies to another sought-after publication that pilferers desire, can't get enough of and, well, really, really want.
"Yeah," Lemme said, "we have to do the same thing with the Sunday want ads."
To contact Joe Kovac Jr., call 744-4397 or e-mail jkovac@macontel.com.
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