[Publib] Bathroom security

[Kathryn Bloomberg - Rissman]

We went with the buzz-in system.  The restrooms in the children's area
are not visible from the desk, but the radio frequency still gets to
them.  The kids just have to let us know at the desk and we buzz them
in. This has cut down on some, but by no means all of the vandalism
problems we've experienced.

 

Kathy Bloomberg-Rissman

Library Director

Upland Public Library

Upland, CA 

________________________________

From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Susan Thaler
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2007 6:24 AM
To: publib at webjunction.org
Subject: [Publib] Bathroom security

 

Hi all,

 

I searched the archives for this topic and found a few relevant hits,
but wanted to see if I could draw more from the collective wisdom.  We
are a fairly new facility--an old factory completely renovated so that
you'd never know it wasn't brand new--opened in 2002, in an inner-city
area.  We have 4 floors, with public multi-stall restrooms on the 2nd,
3rd and 4th floors.  We have continual issues with the
restrooms--grafitti, sexual activity, drug use.  We are considering a
variety of security tactics to try to improve the situation, including
the following: 

 

--locking the restrooms and having the librarians on each floor give out
the keys (they're not thrilled with this idea);

--having some sort of buzz-in system (problematic because the entrances
to the restrooms are not really in sight-lines from the desks);

--removing the entrance doors (NOT the stall doors) altogether, kind of
like in an airport or rest area so that (maybe) people will feel that
there's a greater chance of being caught red-handed at whatever
dastardly deed they're up to; 

--security cameras trained on the entrance doors.

 

We are looking for what has worked for other libraries,  and would be
grateful for any input.

Susan Thaler

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.webjunction.org/wjlists/publib/attachments/20071204/28fe9e49/attachment.htm