From The Literary Hub:
If I am writing about security in libraries, something is very wrong. I would much rather write about the importance of funding for teen services, why funding based on program attendance decreases the quality of programs offered, and the various ways public libraries, well, make America great. But instead I’m going to write about security.
The public library is both fragile and resilient—it’s funding is perpetually on the chopping block and yet it persists, making every penny stretch as far as possible. That thriftiness, combined with steady or increasing library use, has allowed libraries to thrive in trying times. If, however, we do not take proactive steps to make libraries safe in increasingly trying times, the future of the public library is less clear.
Public librarians are not naturally concerned with security issues. Our philosophy centers more around granting access to resources and information than preventing it. We take seriously the phrase “free and equal access to information.” All librarians are like this to some degree—providing access to needed information is more or less why we exist—but few institutions provide more access than the public library. It’s what makes the public library such an essential, dynamic, institution: knowledge and resources available to all.
Any person can walk into the public library and spend as much time as they’d like there. Most public libraries have guest logins for computer use and while folks without a card can’t check out materials, anyone is free to browse and use materials in the library. The things that look like metal detectors near the entrances and exits really just monitor whether a book had been checked out or not. There are often multiple entrances and exits and, consistent with librarians’ dedication to privacy, surveillance is usually minimal to nonexistent. I wouldn’t want it any other way. Public libraries should be welcoming, they shouldn’t feel strict or intimidating—the space is a reflection of the public library philosophy of access. But it is impossible to deny the security risks associated with this space.
. . . .
Public librarians encounter everything. We must interact with patrons who are using public computers to view pornography, mediate domestic disputes and feuds between patrons, all while remaining neutral and professional. We are responsible for Toddler Storytime and Computer Basics for Seniors existing harmoniously in the same public space. The fact that libraries are chronically underfunded and understaffed makes these challenges increasingly difficult to navigate.
Paranoia is something I frequently encountered when I worked in the public library—the combination of publicly used technology (like public computers) and a space bustling with strangers can trigger a variety of reactions in people who have trouble in these situations. These issues are usually resolved by taking the time to explain how the public computers wipe personal data or relocating the patron to a less busy area. But resolving these situations takes time and diplomacy and that’s challenging on a busy Saturday, when you’re the only reference librarian. Furthermore, librarians aren’t trained to deal with complex mental health issues. One of the best solutions for this I’ve encountered is the inclusion of social workers at the San Francisco Public Library. But very few libraries have the resources to do so and we’re pressured to play de-facto social workers while we juggle reference questions.
All public librarians have encountered complicated patron issues, but in a profession where librarians often identify as women, it’s impossible to discuss public library security without acknowledging the sexism and sexual harassment that often saturates patron encounters. These experiences can simply be uncomfortable: a patron once told me I looked like an actress he found attractive and then needed my help to print out several color pictures of the actress so he could take them home. They can also be outright dangerous: a male patron began calling the Reference Desk repeatedly and asking for my schedule. When he was denied it, he tried waiting in the library until my shift was over and then physically chased me into a staff-only area. There, a fellow librarian blocked him from following me any further.
. . . .
Jane, a public librarian friend of mine recounted an incident that highlights the many roles librarians need to play when dealing with complicated patron scenarios as well as the benefits and limitations of having a security guard. She was at the Reference Desk when a patron approached her. “You need to call an ambulance,” he said. Jane picked up the phone. “What should I tell them?” she asked, because the patron did not appear injured in any way). “Tell them I’ve been off my meds for five days and I need help.”
The ambulance arrived and transported the patron to the hospital without incident. A short time later, the hospital called to inform Jane that the man claimed he had left a loaded gun in the men’s bathroom. The library was still open, and there was a steady stream of patrons in and out of the restroom where the patron claimed he’d left the gun.
The security guard at Jane’s library cleared the bathroom and began looking for the gun. As he was searching under paper towels in the trash can for the gun, Jane said to him, “I don’t know if you should be doing that.” The security guard wasn’t sure either. Neither of them knew what to do about the possibility of a loaded gun in the library. The bathroom-search the security guard conducted didn’t yield any results, so he and Jane improvised. The guard stood in front of the door of the bathroom and prevented people from entering until the library closed. When Jane asked her boss about what to do if a similar situation occurred again? According to Jane, her supervisor didn’t know either. “Call the police, I guess.”
Link to the rest at The Literary Hub
Why in heck would somebody think a security guard, working for the library, would have a legal or physical problem searching the trash, which belongs to the library?
I would want some sturdy gloves to do the searching with, in case there were sharp things or diseased things in the trash, sure. But if somebody owns a gun and purposefully dumps a gun in the library trash, surely it has become the library’s gun.
Earlier this year, I was using the computer and a man–who had been muttering to himself for several minutes–suddenly got up and punched the wall. Then he came to stand behind me.
Fortunately, one of the staff had already alerted security and they quickly flanked me; not close enough to set him off, but within arm’s reach in case he made a move toward me. He calmed himself after a few moments (he was also off his meds) and they were able to quietly escort him out.
My wife works at two public libraries and comes home daily with stories of police incidents–drug overdoses, fights, weapons, theft, property damage, raving patrons, and children whose parents drop them off to use the library as a babysitter.
libraries and their staff face issues private businesses and security guarded buildings do not.
City libraries are public facilities. Private University libraries are not. The public libraries in cities are faced with inordinate numbers of persons who seek shelter in cold rather than go to overcrowded shelters, and sit for as long as library is open, who panhandle other patrons, who sleep [who can blame them], who try to use the sinks for bathing, who view porn on the computers, who are often severely not able mentally. Aside from reason to call the police, as in violent outburst, intrusion beyond employee only spaces, injury or death, the public facilities try to accommodate via their way outnumbered and most often older female librarians.
No building or shop would allow such, with the exception of some of the bookstores that allow persons to sleep and sit in the stores, limited by avail of chairs and couches til closing.
It is not likely a library issue. It is the city’s, and what its council does in mercy for the persons who live on river banks and under the bridges of their city. It is up to the city to fund alert security.
I read that san fran has a library as the writer noted, with hired social workers. to help the mentally impaired. Again, it seems the city could fund real mental health treatment that was effective for persons in need, rather than catch as catch can at a facility that has no teams in place, no place to bathe, to truly sleep in or out patient.
Was up at a small mountain town at the library [ a home made wonderful two story cabin of conifer log] giving a reading. A drunken man wandered in in the middle of it all. He put his arm around a child and slurred, how you doin’ sweetheart? In two seconds flat the drunken man was eating a snowbank. In the mountain towns, there are places to act out. And there are family places. They dont mix. And the men and women of the towns are not confused about which is which.
There is a problem with putting social workers in libraries – although I am sure it does reduce the problem of the homeless using them.
A very large percentage of the homeless will not go somewhere that they are going to be preached at – whether that preaching is religious or secular.
“A very large percentage of the homeless will not go somewhere that they are going to be preached at – whether that preaching is religious or secular.”
That’s interesting. I hadn’t heard that before. You’d think they’d listen to whatever they had to in order to get necessary food/shelter, but as I’ve seen too often these days from personal experience, beggars actually can be choosers. I don’t really see this as a deterrent to putting social workers in libraries (or such things). If putting social workers in libraries provides help for some of the homeless who go in and need that kind of help and keep out some of the homeless who don’t want to be preached at, that seems to be addressing the underlying problem in two ways. (Underlying problem as far as the library is concerned, that is, not as far as the city in a wider sense is concerned, perhaps.)
…aaaanndd… they face the same problems any business or its employees do when dealing with the public.
Shakes can marked ‘Sympathy.’ Aw, seems to be empty…