Kelly Library Book Appropriation (2010)

The Kelly Library Book Appropriation was a prank that took place Friday, September 10th, 2010. After St. Michael's College students stole multiple boxes of hardhats from Outer Stores, the Engineering Society bulk storage room, engineering students retaliated by amassing at the John M. Kelly Library and organizing the sign-out of more than 1500 books from the 'Ethics' section.

Prelude

On the afternoon of Wednesday, September 8th, 2010, Skule was hosting the tradition of F!rosh Week Bed Races down King's College Road, attended by New College and St. Mike's College. At one point, the door to Outer Stores was left open and students from SMC made away with several boxes of non-yellow Hardhats.

After the discovery of the theft, representatives of the Engineering Society entered talks with SMC leaders to secure the return of the stolen property. A deal was agreed upon to deliver two cases of beer for the return of the hardhats. At the exchange in Queen's Park, a number of hardhats were claimed by SMC to be "missing or lost", and many further returned hardhats were defaced and no longer usable.

Kelly Library

Call To Arms

After deciding that the thieves should not go unpunished, a plan was hatched to retaliate against SMC. Instead of resorting to theft or vandalism, it was decided that a statement would be made by signing out as many books as possible from the 'Ethics' section of the SMC library and notifying the SMC Student Union. In addition to word of mouth among F!rosh leedurs and their F!rosh, the BFC and LGMB tapped their respective mailing lists to get as many students out on Friday afternoon as possible.

LGMB Event

EMURJENC Bnad Uhvent!!!

Hay dere uvury1!

Iph u r arund todai, cum to da pit aht 3:00! Wee nead ur halp too do sum buk careein. Brin ur T card nd a bahg!

Execution

Upon arriving at Kelly Library, students began loading Ethics books into empty F!rosh kit bags and signing them out at the front desk. Undergraduate students could sign out 50 books for a maximum renewal period of 2 months, while graduate students that came to show support were able to sign out up to 100 books for a period of up to 6 months. For some time, books were literally being taken out of the library by the cartload. Eventually, the crowd of students grew so large that library staff realized what was going on and proceeded to close the 'Ethics' section for "inventory check" against the protests of the students. As the crowd was ready to disperse, one member made a point that if books could not be checked out, they could be put on reserve so that no one else would be able to check them out after the section was reopened. The library staff had no other choice but to comply.

Resolution

After the majority of the engineering crowd had left the library, staff plead with the remaining leaders to stop any further book check-outs. They provided the argument that the library faced a restricted budget while extra staff would need to be recruited for the replacement of the books when they were returned, and taking more books out would only damage the library, not students of SMC. A resolution was reached and after talks between the library and SMCSU, it was agreed that students from St. Mike's would be assigned to aid in the return of books to the shelves. Satisfied with the result, the holds on books were released and the books that had been signed out were returned to the library over the next month.

Further Action

No further action was taken against SMC. However, while absent from the official Havenger Scunt list, a provision was made to give points to any team that liberated SMC property for the Scunt. One team "acquired" a stone bench. They were later ordered to return it immediately by the Mice.