'Golfiana': A Theft from the National Library of Scotland

Abstract

The American writer, Paul Gallico, once commented: ‚If there is any larceny in a man, golf will bring it out’. This case study deals with the theft of three golfing pamphlets from the printed collections of the National Library of Scotland in the autumn of 1993. Unusually, in the context of theft, it is a story with a happy ending, but my account deals with our experiences in dealing with the incident, and it illustrates some of the points that we will wish to discuss at this conference. The central character in this particular drama has since become known in other research libraries in Europe. His name was Perry, although as we discovered in the aftermath, he turned out to have a plethora of names and identities.