It Comes With the Territory: Handling Problem Situations in Libraries

Abstract

The mission of is to meet the information needs of the people they serve - but daily, sticky situations arise that make this tough to do. Reports of peepers, use of the library by the homeless for sleeping, inappropriate Internet use by patrons; encounters with offensive personal hygiene, skateboarding in the stacks, the threat of violence, one's role as a babysitter for latchkey children, censorious complaints. Is there an upswing or are librarians just more sensitized? How do meet these demands? From the perspective of a working director, this thoroughly updated and revised edition (a must for a 1 sizes and types of libraries - Library Journal) is a commonsense guide to setting fair and appropriate behavior rules and training staff in how to implement them evenhandedly and with reasonably good humor. Policies for exhibit and meeting room use; issues surrounding street people, the mentally ill, and substance abusers, sexual deviancy and parental child abuse in the library; community censorship; confidentiality of library records; general security; and unaccompanied children, including protecting them and seeing to their emergency medical needs.

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