Wendy asked Matthew J. Sullivan:

What was your first idea that led to MatBIB?

Matthew J. Sullivan Hi Wendy!
Great question. There were a number of different early seeds that happened when I was working as a bookseller. One of them was working at a bookstore and discovering, on a number of occasions, that someone was going around and cutting images out of books, probably with a little utility knife or razor blade, then putting them back on the shelves. It was puzzling and deeply disturbing. Another early seed happened when another bookseller and I ended up (against all of the rules) chasing a book thief through downtown Denver. He had tons of books packed into his pants, trench coat, shirt. Both of those experiences got me thinking about people's motives for committing book-related crimes, which led me to imagine these complicated personal histories... and you can see where the story grew from there.
Thanks for asking!
matts

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