In Se7en there was the FBI library register, do/did such things exist IRL?

[Zsofia]

@Justin_Bailey

@An_Gadai

Thanks for your responses. I have a supplimentary question, do American libraries routinely carry many books that would help people who wanted to get up to no good (e.g. bomb making books)? I suppose there are possibly some legal, wholesome uses for books of this nature.

I’m sure some do, but it’s not routine, no. There’s just no money in the budget to buy The Anarchist’s Cookbook when you’re struggling to satisfy everyone’s Stephen King/John Grisham/James Patterson/Janet Evanovich itch.

More like, books like The Anarchist’s Cookbook get stolen so often there’s really no point in buying them. Academic libraries are more likely to collect that kind of material.

ETA - the thing is, patrons hate that we can’t tell them what they checked out a year ago! There have also been incidents like a guy who disappeared hiking near IIRC Clemson and investigators thought maybe they could narrow down a search based on books he had checked out, but there was no record. Hey, tell somebody where you’re going, asshole!

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

Of course, if you haven’t returned it, the Library Gestapo will find you long before the FBI do, and they won’t read you any rights.

[jackdavinci]

@Raguleader

I can’t remember the last time a library put somebody’s name in the book. Did they used to have a card in them that the librarians would write peoples’ names on?

Sorry, I was thinking of my elementary school library and a specialized library at college. Public libraries just had a date stamp.