[Publib] Adults in children's area

[Dusty Gres]

Several people have mentioned, but it bears repeating -- check with your
library attorney before making a broad policy of this sort. What seems like
a reasonable and good idea for reasonable and good reasons, may still not be
within certain legal guidelines. Local and/or state laws may offer
assistance or restrictions.
A public library has certain obligations under the law for free and open
access for all. 


Dusty Gres, Director 
Ohoopee Regional Library System
Hdq: Vidalia-Toombs County Library
610 Jackson Street
Vidalia, GA 30474
PH: (912) 537-9283
FAX: (912) 537-3735
EMAIL: gresd at ohoopeelibrary.org
WEB: http://www.ohoopeelibrary.org
"Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different
speeds. 
A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing." 
William James
 
-----Original Message-----
From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org]
On Behalf Of subs itoors
Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2008 5:52 PM
To: publib at webjunction.org
Subject: [Publib] Adults in children's area

Hello Wynita:

I'm afraid I'm in complete disagreement with you. First of all, I'm sad that
you use the word brat to describe children--especially anyone who works in a
public service job. But I will not get drawn into an argument with you about
your attitude towards future generations.

I also think you fail to understand a much more fundamental issue.  
Perhaps in your teeny library it is easy for a child to be watched on
monitored every minute. And yes, if your library is truly that small,
clearly it is not such a big issue to have kids in the same space, because
ostensibly you know the kids coming in and would see if someone they don't
belong to is taking them.

However, there is a much more concerning issue in larger spaces. It is
almost impossible for a parent in a larger children's library (for example
the 6,000 square foot space near us) to watch their child all the time--not
to mention that it is an important developmental issue to allow children of
a certain age the autonomy to walk around secure public spaces.

Adults have many many other choices of places they can go--the world is open
to them for public places to relax. They can go to the park, to a store, to
Starbucks, to JCCs, churches, community centers and so on. iIf your
community does not have adequate public accommodations for adults, then that
is what you should be advocating for.

However, children have far more limited places they can go to relax and
learn, especially in winter. there are many people like you who consider
kids who are just being kids "brats" so families are restricted in the
places that they can take them where they can be lively and natural.

In the city I live in, kids are stolen from public places ALL THE TIME. That
is how the rule evolved.

The easiest way to protect children is to create spaces for adults that are
plentiful enough but to restrict children's areas to children.


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