At least 10,000 books have gone missing from the University of Malta libraries after students failed to return them.

That is two per cent of the 500,000 books that can be borrowed and although the figure is substantial it is still low when compared to what goes missing from other European universities.

Library director Kevin Ellul said efforts had been taken to curb the number of books lifted from the Msida campus, including the introduction of security tags attached to each book up for loan. But students began to cut the tags. Others, Mr Ellul said, would simply tear off the relevant pages from books they were meant to read as part of their course material.

To put an end to the repeat disappearances, Mr Ellul said the library administration planned to re-tag each book with new security chips which would be more difficult to remove and would also allow librarians to track the location of books which were not returned or deliberately misplaced in the library.

Mr Ellul admitted that the future for the library was digital.

“Nearly a million books, journals and other publications were downloaded from the numerous electronic services operated by the library this year. This number is growing fast and it is what we are focusing on,” he said.