Book vandals strike again

A huge pile of books topped with chunky volumes of Encyclopaedia Britannica were set on fire in the refurbished library at Ħamrun Junior Lyceum yesterday morning.

In the second such attack within a week, vandals broke into the library of San Ġorġ Preca College and pulled books off the shelves, doused them in flammable liquid and set them alight.

The fire spread, burnt a computer and destroyed the library, which had been revamped last year with government funds. A caretaker who arrived at about 5.30 a.m. noticed the fire and called the police and the civil protection.

Last week, unknown persons broke into the store during the night shattering a window pane and setting hundreds of mostly old and unused books on fire.

The attack yesterday was much worse as the library, which was also promoting the ongoing book fair, had just been updated with an online cataloguing system. The big majority of books and shelves have now been destroyed. Officials from the Education Services Directorate had installed the system only on Tuesday morning, the Education Ministry said yesterday.

While condemning the incident, Education Minister Dolores Cristina appealed to publishers and students to donate books to furnish the library again.