'Catching a Map Thief' whodunit lecture takes place Nov. 18 in Wilson Library

Rob Lopresti, a government information librarian at Western Washington University, will share his story of the 2006 library map thief, and what WWU did to help catch him, in a lecture planned for 4 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 18, in Zoe's Bookside Bagels in Wilson Library.

Lopresti's presentation is part of the Western Libraries Reading Series.

Four years ago, someone stole hundreds of maps and some books from the WWU Library. More than a year and a half of investigation by WWU staff resulted in the federal conviction of a man who confessed to robbing more than 100 libraries in the United States and Canada. Almost 20,000 pages and hundreds of books were found in the thief's collection.