[Publib] a fresh, new nugget for people to chew on about

Sat Feb 2 15:27:47 EST 2008

Kate -

I'm not sure if your response is to my posting, or to others, but I'd 
like to at least clarify the point I was trying to make this afternoon.

I was not trying to even remotely hint at blaming the parents of the 
child.  You are correct - the blame for incidents such as the one 
reported, are 100% with the criminal.

My point is to ask: What can we do as administrators of public 
libraries, to prevent as best as we can these incidents from 
occuring?  My personal opinion based on the behavior I've observed in 
a variety of library settings (medium to large urban & medium 
suburban) is that by having policies like the one cited that bans 
adults from children's departments, we actually are creating a false 
sense of security.  It is my opinion that false security is quite 
likely to bring on very incidents that we are trying to prevent.

When I starting working as a Branch Manager at the library where I am 
now, one of the first things I saw was a children's department 
information desk that sat empty 99.9% of the time.  Whatever design 
the architects had for staffing patterns -- the budget cuts and staff 
reductions had long since left that desk empty. It is unlikely that 
budgets are going to change any time soon.  But that does not mean 
that our library needs to leave our children's department not 
staffed.  We are moving our adult information desk to an area that is 
a transition in the building layout from the childrens area to the 
adult area.  With the info desk at the new location, the staff will 
be able to better monitor and serve the patrons in the childrens 
department (as Robert from RI articulated well).

The trade-off is that the far corners of the adult department will be 
less visible than before.  I also have instructed all staff to be on 
their feet more and do floor walking as a regular part of their 
duties.  As a manager I do it often, and I even have our custodial 
staff do it. It is not a perfect guarantee that the predators can 
never attack a child in our childrens area, but it is enormously more 
effective than putting in place a policy that is questionable in 
terms of its legality, and flies in the face of our goal to put 
library materials into the hands of people asking for them.

What we want our profession saying about this crime is that it is 
HORRIFIC.  We also should be saying that in order for our public 
libraries to be safer places, we need patrons to make wise decisions, 
and patrons (parents) to work with the staff on what each of us can 
do to best prevent this from happening ever again.

Paul Ericsson

These opinions are my own and not of my employer.

At 11:50 AM 2/2/2008, Kate Mossman wrote:
>I'm sorry, but I'm horrified by the implication that this boy's rape is
>the fault of the parent. Comments like "And the people that get "blamed"
>never seem to be the parents" and "It's an excellent argument why people
>shouldn't let their children go to the library unsupervised" feel not
>just callous but a little too familiar--it's just the "she shouldn't
>have been walking down that dark alley alone in the first place"
>argument, repackaged. Is this really what we want our profession to say
>in response to this awful crime? That parents coming to the library must
>supervise their children lest something terrible happen???!!! It's not
>fair to blame the victim, nor is it fair to blame the victim's parent.
>The man who committed this crime is to blame, whoever he is. Can we have
>some empathy for the victim and not make this about those bothersome,
>irresponsible internet users?
>
>--Kate
>(my opinions are my own)
>
>Message: 19
>Date: Fri, 1 Feb 2008 18:48:41 -0500 (EST)
>From: Sue Kamm <suekamm at mindspring.com>
>Subject: Re: [Publib] a fresh, new nugget for people to chew on about
>         how     libraries....
>To: Phalbe Henriksen <phenriksen at cox.net>, publib at webjunction.org
>Message-ID:
>
><23533880.1201909721513.JavaMail.root at mswamui-chipeau.atl.sa.earthlink.n
>et>
>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
>
>Saw that.  It's an excellent argument why people shouldn't let their
>children go to the library unsupervised.
>
>-----Original Message-----
> >From: Phalbe Henriksen <phenriksen at cox.net>
> >Sent: Feb 1, 2008 6:25 PM
> >To: publib at webjunction.org
> >Subject: [Publib] a fresh, new nugget for people to chew on about how
>libraries....
> >
> >whatever they want to argue about.
> >
> >http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22956688/
> >
> >Phalbe Henriksen
> >at home
> >
>
>At 06:48 PM 2/1/2008, Sue Kamm wrote:
> >Saw that.  It's an excellent argument why people shouldn't let their
> >children go to the library unsupervised.
>
>Yeah. But it's more than that. It's about why people shouldn't go to
>the library to do something (like get on the internet) and totally
>ignore their child/children. (Or go anywhere else and totally ignore
>their child/children.)
>
>I don't think this is just about "we don't act in loco parentis" that
>librarians have to accept, given the open nature of libraries and the
>staffing levels. I think it's a much broader societal problem of
>parents taking their children wherever they need to go and then not
>supervising them. It seems to be rampant. And the people that get
>"blamed" never seem to be the parents.
>
>Phalbe
>still at home
>
>
>Message: 23
>Date: Sat, 2 Feb 2008 07:42:45 -0500
>From: subs itoors <subs at itoors.com>
>Subject: [Publib] Boy raped in Boston library...NY Times
>To: publib at webjunction.org
>Message-ID: <5B03CE25-45F6-4C79-A05A-F89BBC2C6756 at itoors.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=WINDOWS-1252; format=flowed;
>         delsp=yes
>
>This is dedicated to the person who said that the last time something
>bad happened to kids in libraries was in 1874 or something like that
>and sees no issues with adults in the kids section of the library.
>
>This is from today's New York Times:
>
>Sex Offender Accused of Raping Boy, 6, in Public Library
>
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