Vandalism in academic libraries: Types and causes

The aim of this research is to recognize the types and causes of vandalism in academic libraries of governmental universities in Tehran from their librarians’ viewpoint. The research method is survey and statistical population involved of all employed librarians in libraries of 10 governmental universities of Tehran. The viewpoints of 304 they by sampling method was simple random sampling and have been collected and surveyed through researcher-designed questionnaire. Vandalism in resources is greater than vandalism in buildings and equipment. On resources stealing, hiding and tearing of resources occur and this is common event for the books and magazines. On equipment and buildings most damage has been caused by writing on them, relocating poster, writing text on the wall and damage to equipment. The causes of occurrence of vandalistic behavior can be divided into two groups: 1- The individual factors such as: inability to buy resources, frequent use of library resources and psychological problems. 2-Environmental factors such as: dissatisfaction of users from library services and the lack of multiple copies of resources. Originality: According to the studies, this research has been the first in the country to Survey vandalism in academic libraries of governmental universities in Tehran.