[Publib] Patron disagrees with challenged and/or homeless people in the library--addendum

[Judith Turner]

I sent this reply offlist to Denise on Monday but thought I'd send it out to the list because I'm not sure anybody mentioned some of the suggestions I had (also, perhaps this wound up in her SPAM filter as so many messages sent from a yahoo address do.)

Perhaps the patron mostly wanted to vent about an uncomfortable or even
scary experience and that will be the end of it.  However, it would be
a good p.r. move to suggest she come to the next board meeting and
express her concerns there.  

That way it's her responsibility
to decide how far she wants to take this while demonstrating that
you're trying to make her comfortable at the library, too.  What you
want to avoid is having her feel the library is unresponsive because
she could do a fair amount of damage by complaining to friends, writing
to local papers or calling elected officials and claiming library staff
did nothing to stop what she considers threatening behavior (these
things get exaggerated in the retelling.) 

It would be a good
idea to bring the situation to the attention of  Board members and have
a discussion or review existing policies regarding patron dress and
behavior so everybody is on the same page in case there are further
developments.


I may be assuming this is more serious than it is, but you did see an
email out asking for advice, so my final suggestion is to keep a record
of these sort of contacts and your followups and any action taken.  If
a perennial "odd" patron is provoking others to complain more
frequently,  there my be something "odder" than normal that may require
intervention by mental health professionals.

Judy Turner
Whitefish Bay, WI


      
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