Foxfyre, you had nothing to do with this, did you???


Librarian who stole hundreds of rare books to sell online avoids jail.

MANCHESTER, England (AP) — A librarian who stole hundreds of rare books to sell on the Internet, including prized 17th century volumes, was spared jail Wednesday by a judge who warned he had threatened his city's literary heritage.

Norman Buckley, 44, an assistant at Manchester's Central Library, pleaded guilty to theft charges in August, stole about 455 centuries-old books and documents and stored them in his apartment in meticulously ordered book cases, prosecutors told Manchester Crown Court.

Law enforcement officials said between January 2005 and March 2006, Buckley had taken two or three books at a time from the library — often from a private collection only open to the public by appointment.

His haul included 17th century editions of works by Geoffrey Chaucer, romantic poet John Donne and historian William Camden.

Buckley sold a volume of Donne's Elegies online for $3,370 and made a total of $20,600 from sales via websites of 44 works, prosecutors said. The remaining books were found carefully indexed at his home in the city of Manchester, 195 miles north of London.

Judge Clement Goldstone acknowledged that Buckley had provided details of the sales to help police recover the books and said his actions had won him a lenient sentence.

Goldstone handed Buckley a 65-week jail term, but suspended it for two years, meaning he will not be imprisoned unless he commits further crimes. He was also ordered to perform 250 hours of community service.

"Every time you offered a book for sale, you were breaking the trust that had been placed in you," Goldstone told Buckley.

Goldstone said if the librarian had succeeded in selling all 455 books, it would have been a huge loss to Manchester's literary heritage. Police said they are attempting to recover the books that were sold.