The Security Network welcomed 22 participants to a summer school on Security issues. Curators and security officers from libraries and archives spent two and a half days at a course where we shared knowledge on topics like collection security, reading the behaviour of your readers, legal aspects, national and international collaboration, what to do after a theft, embedding security in the wider organisation, and digital security.

The aim was that this summer school would create a network of security officers and curators who work together on best practices, who alert each other to potential thieves or stolen books on the market, and who generally support each other in security matters.

The Workshop was led by Theo Vermeulen (formerly of the KB The Hague, now retired), Kristian Jensen (British Library), Jacqueline Lambert (KB Brussels), and other invited speakers.

Scales: you could check this website
Wim Tromp has shared KB The Hague guidelines for using the scales
Greger Bergvall has rescued the Security Survey as a blank form, so that you may share it with your colleagues.

Wednesday 6 September

13:00 Welcome and all participants introduce themselves – Marian Lefferts

13:30 Results of the survey that participants of the Summer school sent in – Theo Vermeulen
Presentation

14:30 Major thefts – by staff and readers – Kristian Jensen, British Library

15:30 After a theft - Theo Vermeulen
Presentation

15:45 Art Crime, The Dutch Perspective - Martin Finkelnberg, Head of the Art and Antiques Crime Unit, National Police Netherlands
Presentation

16:30 Group discussion: Own experiences with thefts?

17:00 Visit to the Museum Meermanno

18:30 Drinks reception, courtesy of the Museum Meermanno

Thursday 7 September
9:15 Gather in the meeting room

9:30 Visit to the Special Collections Reading Room - KB The Hague



10:00 Behind the scenes Library Tour - including a visit to the stacks

11:00 Practical issues – Theo Vermeulen and Tanja de Boer (including Staff responsibilities; Warehouse management; Reading room: supervision, access, procedures; Behaviour of readers; Tracking what readers borrow; Recording your collections and how to mark individual items)
Presentation by Theo Vermeulen
Presentation by Tanja de Boer

12:00 Lunch

13:00 Practical issues continued

15:00 Tea

15:30 Visit to the KB Exhibition space
Presentation by Theo Vermeulen
16:00 Security around exhibitions, in-house and when you send items out on loan

17:00 End

19:00 Dinner

Friday 8 September
9:15 Gather in the meeting room 9:30 Visit to the reading room of the National Archive

10:15 KB Programme Digital Security – Liedewij Lamers, Programme Manager
Presentation

11:00 General issues: physical safety, safety in and around the building, CCTV, safety plan and crisis management - Wim Tromp, KB The Hague
Presentation\\

12:30 Lunch

13:30 Collection Security Survey: how it was used in KB Brussels – Jacqueline Lambert, KB Brussels
Presentation

• In June 2015 Mme Lambert wrote an article about working with the Survey in the KB Brussels. In her presentation she will reflect on the progress that was made in the last two years.

14:30 Revisiting the participants’ survey results, discuss with participants what they will now do or change in their own institutions – Theo Vermeulen
Presentation

15:30 End

How to get to the KB The Hague: https://www.kb.nl/en/visitors/address-and-directions

Planning your travel by public transport (train, tram, bus): http://9292.nl/

Buying a day ticket: https://www.denhaag.nl/en/residents/to/Day-tickets-for-public-transport.htm

During the weekend of 9 and 10 September 2017, many monuments in The Hague are open to the public. This offers a rare opportunity to visit some buildings that are normally not open to the public. You can download the programme here, but you could also download the OMD The Hague app (both Android and Apple are available).

All through 2017, The Hague is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the movement De Stijl. Mondriaan was one of its exponents, and the The Hague Gemeentemuseum has the largest collection of his works. In September they are featuring an exhibition called The Discovery of Mondriaan.

The Maurits House has two exhibitions, one on Jan Steen and one featuring portraits painted by Flemish artists between 1400 and 1700, organised in collaboration with the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Antwerp (KMSKA), which is closed until 2019 due to renovations.

Other places worth a visit: the sea (take tram 1 or 9, or bus 24 to their final stop), graphic art by M.C. Escher (1898-1972) at the Escher museum, a fantastic sculpture collection at Beelden aan Zee, one of the last remaining 19th century panaroma paintings in Europe in the Mesdag Museum (dating from 1881), and of course the miniature city Madurodam. And if you enter Museums The Hague in your browser, you discover even more!