[HISTORY: Adopted by the Village Board of the Village of
Argyle 12-7-2005 as Title 11, Ch. 3, Sec. 11-3-4, of the 2005 Village Code. Amendments
noted where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
General penalty — See § 1-2.
For the purposes of this chapter, certain words and terms are
defined as follows:
A place in which public or institutional records are systematically
preserved.
Any public library, library of an educational or historical
organization or society or museum, and specifically the public libraries
within the Village of Argyle and school libraries.
Includes any book, plate, picture, photograph, engraving,
painting, drawing, map, newspaper, magazine, pamphlet, broadside,
manuscript, document, letter, public record, microform, sound recording,
audiovisual materials in any format, magnetic or other tapes, electronic
data-processing records, or other tapes, artifacts or other documents,
written or printed materials, regardless of physical form of characteristics,
belonging to, on loan to or otherwise in the custody of a library.
A.
Whoever intentionally takes and carries away, transfers, conceals or retains possession of any library material without the consent of a library official, agent or employee and with intent to deprive the library of possession of the material may be subject to a forfeiture as provided by the general penalty provisions of this Code (§ 1-2).
B.
The failure to return library material after its proper return date,
after written notice from the library and Police Department, shall
be deemed to be theft. Notice shall be considered given when written
notice is mailed to the last-known address of the person with the
overdue material; the notice date shall be the date of mailing.
C.
No person shall be charged with a violation of this chapter unless
such person is provided written notice signed by a library official,
agent or employee setting forth the following:
(1)
A reasonable description of the library materials;
(2)
The date that the library materials were due to be returned;
(3)
The final date by which either the library materials are to be returned
or a written explanation made to the library that the library materials
are incapable of being returned because they are lost or destroyed;
and
(4)
The statement that:
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"Your failure to comply with the demands of this notice will subject you to being prosecuted for a violation of Chapter 365 of the Municipal Code of the Village of Argyle, concerning theft of library material, and upon conviction, a penalty of not less than $25 nor more than $500, together with the costs of prosecution."
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(5)
Said notice shall be served by regular first class mail sent to the
person's last known address or by personal service upon such
person.
The concealment of library material beyond the last station
for borrowing library material in a library is evidence of intent
to deprive the library of possession of the material. The discovery
of library material which has not been borrowed in accordance with
the library's procedures or taken with consent of a library official,
agent or employee and which is concealed upon the person or among
the belongings of another is evidence of intentional concealment on
the part of the person so concealing the material.
An official or adult employee or agent of a library who has
probable cause for believing that a person has violated this chapter
in his or her presence may detain the person in a reasonable manner
for a reasonable length of time to deliver the person to a law enforcement
officer or to the person's parent or guardian in the case of
a minor. The detained person shall be promptly informed of the purpose
of the detention and be permitted to make telephone calls, but shall
not be interrogated or searched against his or her will before the
arrival of a law enforcement officer, who may conduct a lawful interrogation
of the accused person. Compliance with this chapter entitles the official,
agent or employee effecting the detention to the same defense in any
action as is available to a peace officer making an arrest in the
line of duty.
No person shall mar, deface or in any other way damage or mutilate any book, periodical, pamphlet, picture or other article or property belonging to or in charge of the library. Any person convicted of violating this section shall be subject to the penalties as set forth in § 1-2 of this Code.
No person shall fail, on demand, to return any book, periodical, pamphlet, picture or other articles or property belonging to or in charge of the Public Library according to the rules or regulations duly made and adopted by the Library Board, and no person shall remove from the library any book, periodical, pamphlet, picture or other articles or property without first having it charged as provided by such rules and regulations. Any person convicted of violating any provision of this section shall be subject to the penalties as set forth in § 1-2 of this Code.
