[Publib] "stolen" library books

[rstorey]

My email was perhaps unclearly written, and thus misunderstood.  

A patron came to one of our branches with a police report and asked what her
charges would be for the missing books.  We said no problem, no charges, and
waived everything.  



-----Original Message-----
From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org]
On Behalf Of Elizabeth Rogers
Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2008 10:34 AM
To: publib at webjunction.org
Subject: [Publib] "stolen" library books

I'm really surprised at the tone of these responses.  It would never occur
to me to ask for a police report, and I wouldn't think it would do much for
public relations. Whenever a patron of ours has ANY sort of mishap,
disaster, etc., we want library books to be the last thing they worry about.
We want them to think of libraries as places where they're welcome and not
punished for things they have no control over.  If the patron's house burns
down, do you require a sworn statement from a fireman?  I see having your
car stolen as a traumatic event, and demanding to see a police report
compounds the trauma by suggesting that 
the patron is dishonest.   This doesn't mean we don't take the financial 
support of our taxpayers seriously, it just means we take our patrons' 
needs seriously as well.  After all--they're taxpayers too, for the most
part.

Elizabeth Rogers
CEF Library System
33 Oak Street
Plattsburgh, NY  12901


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