[Publib] room use

[Louise Alcorn]

* I can't speak much to tutors but you may have a policy on file that
says the library can't be used as a place of business or for sale of
goods and tutors may be considered to fall under that.  Usually I think
it depends if the tutors are disrupting others use of the space.  If
they are private tutors, I would think that's between the
child/parent/tutor--not the library's responsiblity. 

Abigail makes a good point here that I want to expand on, from our
experience.  
 
Our policies for our rooms (we have two different kinds of rooms, with
slightly different policies) say something about the rooms not being
used for commercial purposes, which we (roughly) define as direct sales,
sales pitches, etc.  However, the tutors use our "study rooms" which are
a little looser, and we consider what they're doing to be under the
umbrella of "lifelong learning" in our mission.  Even though they're
technically doing business, they're not make a sales pitch/direct sale
right there.  It's already contracted work.  We have patrons who come in
to use our wifi and study rooms who are working for their employers at
the time, as well, so I think any definition gets blurry.  
 
We also allow job interviews, as many companies don't have any place to
do this off-site except the library.  Yes, this is blurry, but it makes
sense to our patrons and they respect it.  
 
We also have homeowners associations, cultural groups, boy scout parent
groups and the like who use our rooms.  We're delighted to have them.
They do have to read and accept our policy(s) to use the rooms.  And
yes, we know they rarely read these.  
 
Another note:  very rarely do we actually know what is going on in our
study rooms.  We feel they are, as Abigail said, simply using a Service
of the library and as long as the activity falls under our library
conduct policy (non-disruptive, no vandalism, legal, etc.) and our rooms
policy, we're glad to offer this service to them.  
 
An additional 2 cents :)
 
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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