I thought the article was very interesting, and, yes, sad. Having
worked for a time in the public library I had occasion to see some of
the disruptive behavior and talk with the director a bit about how it
was handled. WHile in the children's room, I saw very little
"disruptive behavior." The biggest issue during my time there was
that of small children being left unattended. The library had a
policy based on age and children who were unaccompanied were asked
where their parents were and we would discuss the policy with parents
if they left their children unattended. I don't remember the length
of time that was listed, but the primary issue was safety of the
children and, of course, liability. Apparently there had been
problems with parents leaving the library facility, assuming their
children would be cared for for several hours--and I'm not talking
about middle schoolers--I'm talking about young elementary school-age
children. (Note, these were not cases of the parent walking over to
the adult section for a few minutes.) In the "adult and young adult"
section of the library, the biggest issue seemed to occur over after-
school behavior around the Internet terminals. Because our city has
a school "short day" on Wednesdays, Wednesday afternoons are the
times that are the craziest. The policy, which seemed to work fairly
well, was that anyone using the library is expected to follow the
basic library guidelines and be respectful of other patrons--
regardless of age. When too many students gather around one internet
terminal, it tends to get very loud and students would be reminded to
break into smaller groups and to watch the noise levels. Students
violating library rules are warned and, as our library is part of a
larger Civic Center complex, if they are banned from the library for
a specific time, they are also banned from the Civic Center and the
rec facilities there (and vice versa). In extreme cases, the parents
of students banned from the facilities are notified and, if students
come to the library and make an apology to the staff members
involved, they are then given back their privileges. Fortunately,
the extreme cases don't happen that often. There are not a lot of
places for teens to go after school in our city, but having the Civic
Center right beside the library is probably a big help. I'm sure
that anyone who has worked in the public library, particularly on
circ or in reference, can tell some patron behavior horror stories.
It's something that, unfortunately, seems to be part of working with
the public. However, if the library has a good and clear policy
regarding expected library behavior that is made clear to all
patrons, AND there is a good policy in place for dealing with
"disruptive situations" (regardless of age--I personally saw far more
issues with adults than with teens), AND if the library staff has a
good support system and is backed up by the Library Admin and the
City, the situations can be resolved without resorting to drastic
measures. (My English professors will be sending me nastygrams about
that last sentence construction!) Hopefully the library in this
article will find support within the city structure to help them
resolve the issue without having to close down for those hours, which
punishes everyone for the actions of a few.
Ronda Y. Foust
School Media Specialist in Training, UTK
rstansb2@utk.edu
Oak Ridge, TN
http://thebookdragon.blogspot.com/
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