ABSTRACT
This study was carried out to investigate the strategies for combatting book theft and vandalism for effective services in academic libraries. The purpose of the study was to ascertain the extent to which book theft and vandalism have affected the effect of services in John Harris Library, identify information materials that are vulnerable to book theft and vandalism in John Harris Library, determine factors that are responsible for book theft and vandalism in John Harris Library, identify the effects of book theft and vandalism on information materials in John Harris Library and determine the strategies for combatting book theft and vandalism for effective services in John Harris Library.
All 13,835 registered users of the John Harris library was used for this study. The simple random sampling technique was adopted for the study and a well-structured questionnaire was used for data collection. A total of 138 copies of questionnaires were distributed to the respondents and 100 copies were retrieved and found to be usuable, resulting to a 72% response rate.
Based on the results, it was recommended that policies that will guide against every form of theft and vandalism should be formulated, implemented and adhered to, regular checking of library users and staff should be done to avoid them from stealing library materials, effective surveillance staff/porters or surveillance cameras should be provided to aid proper safety of library materials, orientation of users should be done to teach them on how to access, locate, handle and use library materials, security guards in the library should patrol around the library for inspection during and off reading hours.
