RBMS Security Committee: State Laws: South Carolina
The RBMS Security Committee attempts to maintain a current list of statutes from each of the fifty states pertaining to library thefts or other criminal acts involving library and archival materials (view index). Following are the relevant laws for the state of South Carolina:
Code of Laws of the State of South Carolina SECTION 16-13-330. Stealing or damaging works of literature or objects of art. [SC ST SEC 16-13-330]
Any person who shall steal or unlawfully take or wilfully or maliciously write upon, cut, tear, deface, disfigure, soil, obliterate, break or destroy, or who shall sell or buy or receive, knowing it to have been stolen, any book, pamphlet, document, newspaper, periodical, map, chart, picture, portrait, engraving, statue, coin, medal, equipment, specimen, recording, film or other work of literature or object of art belonging to or in the care of a library, gallery, museum, collection, exhibition or belonging to or in the care of any department or office of the State or local government, or belonging to or in the care of a library, gallery, museum, collection or exhibition which belongs to any incorporated college or university or which belongs to any institution devoted to educational, scientific, literary, artistic, historical or charitable purposes shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be punished by a fine of not more than one hundred dollars or imprisonment for not more than thirty days.
SECTION 16-13-331. Unauthorized removal or concealment of library property prohibited; penalty.
Whoever, without authority, with the intention of depriving the library or archive of the ownership of such property, willfully conceals a book or other library or archive property, while still on the premises of such library or archive, or willfully or without authority removes any book or other property from any library or archive or collection shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be punished in accordance with the following: (1) by a fine of not more than six hundred dollars or imprisonment for not more than six months; provided, however, that if the value of the library or archive property is less than fifty dollars, the punishment shall be a fine of not more than one hundred dollars or imprisonment for not more than thirty days. Proof of the willful concealment of any book or other library or archive property while still on the premises of such library or archive shall be prima facie evidence of intent to commit larceny thereof.
SECTION 16-13-332. Library personnel exempt from liability for arrest of persons suspected of concealment or removal of library property.
A library or agent or employee of the library causing the arrest of any person pursuant to the provisions of § 16-13-331 shall not be held civilly liable for unlawful detention, slander, malicious prosecution, false imprisonment, false arrest, or assault and battery of the person so arrested, unless excessive or unreasonable force is used; whether such arrest takes place on the premises by such agent or employee; provided that, in causing the arrest of such person, the library or agent or employee of the library had at the time of such arrest probable cause to believe that the person committed willful concealment of books or other library property.
SECTION 16-13-340. Failure to return books, newspapers, magazines and the like borrowed from library and other institutions.
Whoever borrows from any county library or municipal, school, college or other institutional library or gallery, museum, collection or exhibition any book, newspaper, magazine, manuscript, pamphlet, publication, recording, film or other article belonging to or in the care of such library, gallery, museum, collection or exhibition under any agreement to return it and thereafter fails to return such book, newspaper, magazine, manuscript, pamphlet, publication, recording, film or other article shall be given written notice, mailed to his last known address or delivered in person, to return such book, newspaper, magazine, manuscript, pamphlet, publication, recording, film or other article within fifteen days, and in the event that such person shall thereafter wilfully and knowingly fail to return such borrowed article within fifteen days, such person shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be punished by a fine of not more than one hundred dollars or imprisonment for not more than thirty days, provided the notice required by this section shall bear upon its face a copy of this section.
SECTION 16-13-350. Posting copies of §§ 16-13-330 to 16-13-370.
Every county library or municipal, school, college or other institutional library or gallery, museum, collection or exhibition or any such institution belonging to any incorporated college or library or belonging to any incorporated institution devoted to educational, scientific, literary, artistic, historical or charitable purposes whose books, newspapers, magazines, manuscripts, pamphlets, publications, recordings, films or other articles are covered by or protected by §§ 16-13-330 and 16-13-340, shall post and display in at least two public places within such institution or library a copy of §§ 16-13-330 to 16-13-370 so that they may be read by anyone going into, visiting or belonging to such institution and borrowing books or other documents from such institution.
See South Carolina statutes online at: http://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t16c013.htm.
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