Penn State Great Valley Library Blog

Yale, Harvard, and The British Library are now reporting that more maps are missing from their collections than those E. Forbes Smiley, III (the Martha’s Vineyard map thief) admitted to stealing, according to the Hartford Courant newspaper. The British Library suspects that the map dealer has taken three additional maps. As a result, they have hired Philadelphia lawyer Robert Goldman to further explore their case. Before joining private practice this year, Goldman prosecuted more than 30 art and culture thieves; along with helping to recover stolen items once belonging to President George Washington, Patrick Henry, and Geronimo.

“We continue to entertain serious doubts about the completeness of the investigation and the extent of Mr. Smiley’s cooperation with the authories,” said Clive Field - director of scholarship and collections at The British Library.

Smiley has admitted to stealing several maps and then selling them for more than $110,000 each on his website to rare map collectors around the world.

Harvard released the names of five additional maps missing from their collection last Friday and Yale and The British Library made their thefts public information. A closed door meeting of the Yale librarians and the FBI is scheduled on August 7th in preparation for Smiley’s sentencing.

Harvard will post a public version of their list of missing maps in the thefts section of www.maphistory.info. Yale’s list is located at www.library.yale.edu/MapColl/msgmaps.html

With technology changing so quickly, it can be somewhat confusing to determine when you should upgrade your computer versus purchasing a new one. The answer to this question varies based on the needs of the primary user of the computer. However, to maximize logging onto library resources remotely (particularly large size databases), your computer should have a signifigant amount of memory or RAM. This will allow you the ability to move through databases quickly and toggle between programs (ie running a Powerpoint presentation and surfing databases simultaneously).

To learn more about upgrading versus replacing your computer, click onto this link.