[Publib] room use

[Louise Alcorn]

If we didn't allow, or restricted access to, repeat groups and tutors,
our study rooms would never be used.  Period.  
 
What is a library for, if not to promote lifelong learning (including
tutoring) and community involvement (including group meetings)?  
 
These people are your patrons first.  Unless you want to drug-test and
background check every patron who comes in your door, I think this is a
mighty slippery slope.  
 
I can understand that someone who works with children **under the aegis
of the library** might require a background check, depending on your
hiring policies.  If parents are contracting with these tutors *through*
the library, then you might have a legal obligation, but someone who is
contracted to tutor privately, and not through your library (I assume),
is not your concern.  They are simply patrons using your rooms for
legitimate study.  
 
Question to ask:  Does the library have the right or the responsibility
to track these people?  Again, do you do this for all patrons?  If one
patron offers another help on a computer, do you stop them and make the
one teaching get checked?  This is extreme, but I'm trying to illustrate
my point.  
 
Any conduct by these people should be covered in a) your Meeting Room
Policy which should refer to b) your Library Conduct Policy. 
 
As to another question you asked...many children don't have parents
handy.  They have legal guardians, daily caretakers and the like.
Again, it is up to the tutor to determine if the person with the child
has legal rights to contract with them.  
 
Best of luck.
 
Louise E. Alcorn
Reference Technology Librarian
West Des Moines Public Library
4000 Mills Civic Pkwy
West Des Moines IA 50265
(515) 222-3573      louise.alcorn at wdm-ia.com
http://www.wdmlibrary.org <http://www.wdmlibrary.org/>    
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