MISSISSIPPI COMPUTER STOLEN http://www.sunherald.com/2011/01/15/2780804/library-security-tightened-after.html

Library security tightened after burglary

Computer, cash taken from

Orange Grove unit

By ROBIN FITZGERALD

rfitzgerald@sunherald.com

GULFPORT -- The Orange Grove Public Library plans to beef up security after its second burglary in four months.

The library was shut down for repairs Friday after workers arrived to find the front door had been pried open. A laptop computer and about $300 were missing.

The county sent maintenance workers to repair the door and change the locks, and the library reopened Saturday.

“It’s disheartening,” said Celia Barrett, head librarian for Gulfport public libraries.

“We’ve had so many financial setbacks, we certainly don’t need this,” Barrett said. “We’re going to be moving into a new building and we don’t want to lose what we’ve got.”

A break-in from September has not been solved.

A police spokesman Saturday said no arrests had been made in either case.

The library is on Mobile Avenue off St. Charles Street.

The new building in Orange Grove is tentatively scheduled to open nearby on Old Highway 49 in 2012. Barrett said it will have an advanced security system and will become headquarters for the city’s libraries.

A new library also is planned in downtown Gulfport, which lost its public library to Hurricane Katrina.