[Publib] Boy raped in Boston library...NY Times --Continuation of discussion regarding adults in children's areas inpublic libraries

[mklibrarian at gmail.com]

Are library security issues being examined in any kind or organized,
large-scale way? Are there national or state-wide committees talking about
it...in terms of prevention and "best practices" and how to react to
situations like this awful New Bedford incident?

-M!


Robert wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> The incident could have been that someone was robbed, or
> groped, or materials were damaged, or materials were
> stolen, or someone perished because no one noticed them
> in the stacks for eight minutes after they had a heart
> attack.
>
> To me, the umbrella issue is not children and adults -
> it is security. If the stack area was visible to the
> staff, would there have been an incident?  When thinking
> about redesign and configuration of your services, put
> manageable security on the list.
>
> If service points can see each other and service
> points can see down stacks, the opportunity for crime to go unoticed is
> far less.  A staff member does not need to be able to
> take down a perp, but if they can see something going
> on from their service desk, they can certainly sound
> the alarm.
>
> I turned all of the stacks during a reconfiguration
> so that all areas in the children's area were visible
> by staff, the children's staff could see the circ staff -
> who could see all of there area, and the circ staff
> could see the reference staff - who could see all of
> their area.  No only does this improve security, but
> it also can improve service - what you point to is
> not theoretical.
>
> *************************************************
> Robert L. Balliot
> 1-401-441-5763
> Skype: RBalliot
> Bristol, Rhode Island
> http://oceanstatelibrarian.com/contact.htm
> *************************************************
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org
> [mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org]
> On Behalf Of Paul Ericsson
> Sent: Saturday, February 02, 2008 1:01 PM
> To: subs itoors; publib at webjunction.org
> Subject: Re: [Publib] Boy raped in Boston library...NY Times
> --Continuation
> of discussion regarding adults in children's areas inpublic libraries
>
> Colleagues --
>
> It goes without saying that this reported incident is horrific.
>
> But back to the original question - I was one of
> the people that replied and was critical of the
> library policy that banned adults from the
> children's section of the library.  Even with
> this horrific incident as an example of what does
> happen in this world (probably more often than
> any of us know) - it is my experience that the
> policy in question still does little-to-nothing
> to prevent the incident from happening.
>
>
> Paul Ericsson
>
>
>
>
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