Police also raided his Stanton Street apartment Monday and recovered the mostly history and political science books that were checked out in 1997, officials said. The university made several attempts over the last two years to retrieve the books from Szamuely, a freelance writer for the New York Press, who was a continuing education student at the university from 1993 to 1997. After the matter was referred to the university's general counsel, the police were called to resolve the situation. The police found the books packed in 29 bags in Szamuely's Lower East Side apartment, officials said. They may not be a Gutenberg Bible but they have value and can't be replaced.
Libraries work on an honor system.
He called the recent incident a unique case because overdue books are usually returned in a reasonable amount of time as the university withholds transcripts and degrees from students with outstanding books or fines. Beckman said the missing books negatively impacted students. It is fair to say two things. One, there were people who were looking for these books because they weren't there.