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At least three Vermont libraries have discovered white nationalist propaganda on slips of paper tucked into books on their shelves, according to emailed responses to a warning sent to institutions across the state.

Among those targeted was Southern Vermont College, where library personnel discovered material placed in the literature section of the Karen Gross Library.

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“It was on little slips of paper placed into books, the size of Monopoly money,” said SVC President David Evans.

Since students, staff and visitors to the campus and to the Everett Mansion — where the library is located — all have access to the area, Evans said it would be difficult to determine who left the material.

“I assume it was an outsider,” he said. “It is possible it was a student, but I sincerely hope it was not.”

The material has been removed, and a search was conducted of other sections of the library. The apparent aim, Evans said, “was to shock and disturb” anyone opening the books. “It’s really unfortunate.”

Evans declined to describe the materials in detail so as not to encourage similar behavior. In reporting a similar incident, Middlebury College noted that materials were also discovered at Saratoga Springs Public Library in New York.

Saratoga Today ran a photo of those slips of paper. Both are mock currency of the “Confederate States of America.” One says “Jesus says ‘You must be Born Again’” next to an image of the Confederate flag.

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It was not clear whether the same material, or the same messages, were found in Vermont’s libraries.

Middlebury posted a notice Wednesday on a listserv for Vermont libraries.

“I am writing to let you know of a regrettable incident at the Middlebury College libraries,” wrote Carrie Macfarlane, director of research and instruction at Davis Family Library at Middlebury. “It’s possible that other libraries in the area have been affected.”

The warning continued, “Last week, our library staff discovered that white nationalist propaganda had been placed in the stacks of our main library, in areas covering LGBTQ topics, the Holocaust, civil rights, Judaism, and Islam. Public Safety was alerted and they are investigating the matter.”

The notice said library staff removed all of the materials they could find. “We consider the placement of this material in our stacks to be a form of hate speech. We’ve told our community that hate has no place here, and we’ve provided instructions on what to do if anyone finds more materials like these.”

Another library official, Randal Smathers, director of the Rutland Free Library, confirmed Friday that “we did have an incident with the type of material that was found in the library in Saratoga.”

And Sarah Sanfilippo, director of library resources at SVC, responded Thursday, saying, “We just found some too. Ours were in the literature section, but probably because that’s the only area of our collection that’s not in clear view of other people.”