Chief Librarian of the Hartford Public Library, Louise Blalock, has announced that she plans to retire at the end of the year. Blalock had come under fire earlier in the year after reports surfaced that people were using library computers to view pornography. When “Face The State’s” Dennis House asked Blalock whether she though pornography should be viewed on library computers, she said, “Libraries across the country support First Amendment rights.”
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Is there a public library in
Is there a public library in this country where people AREN’T using library computers to view pornography?
The whole story?
Isn’t this also the library system where a significant amount of the staff was up in arms over poor security in dangerous branches (which led to the director calling them simply racist) and some financial discrepencies as well?
a little of both
I live not far from the area and have good second-hand sources, for what they’re worth.
I hear that Ms. Blalock was a true believer about openness and respecting patrons rights to be left alone and so forth. Her view was a little naive and rosy given what sort of town Hartford can be. It’s rough. There are a lot of drug users, homeless, mentally ill and just plain bad news folks there. It seems that she favored openness over security and may have hurt a lot of patrons and the library system in the process.
But, there was a culture at HPL of calcified civil servant, do-this-job-10-years-after-I’m-dead, classic “I don’t want to walk aaallllll the way over therrrrre” kind of librarians. And some were not nice to patrons whose only crimes were accents, dark skin, different cultures, etc.
Combine. Rise. Repeat.
Behavior — not class or content — matters
>There are a lot of drug users, homeless, mentally ill and
>just plain bad news folks there.
Yes, and? Are these folks not entitled to library services? I’m not sure who “bad news folks” are, but they also fall under the protections of the Constitution.
If someone, anyone, exhibits dangerous or belligerent behavior, then take action against that specific behavior. There are already laws covering “obscenity.” Pornography is not necessarily obscene. And the viewing of it — the viewing of any information, I might add — is not monitored by librarians. Pornography is legal. Obscene materials are illegal. Librarians are not lawyers, nor are they in the business of determining the legality of information.
So, address specific behavior, not classes of people or the legal content of what they might be viewing.
Hey, cut it out
That was what I was going to say.
It is a public library, not a minty fresh white suburbanite library. Bums, crazy people, the stinky, and drug addicts like to read too.
If somebody does something illegal call the cops. If someone stinks see if you can’t help them find a shower if you are so inclined. Otherwise leave people alone to use the library.
We have more than enough laws to combat our real problems, use them we paid good money for them.
Behavior, yes
The stories indicated, however, that bad behavior was not being addressed. Separate from whether the patrons smelled or whether they were viewing porn. Actually, it turns out there are no official behavior rules at this library at all.
We can’t post links anymore but it turns out I was remembering a June 15 Library Journal article, which is easy enough to google up.
First paragraph : The central library of the Hartford Public Library (HPL), CT, according to a long May 18 article in the Hartford Courant, is “A Study in Bad Behavior.” The newspaper, drawing on the accounts of union leaders and internal documents, suggests that the library, lacking a policy on handling behavior problems, has been lax in responding to concerns about patron drinking and sexual activity, that staffers feel unsafe, and that the absence of a security system enables theft of materials.
The link to the Courant article still works too.
clarify
It wasn’t the presence so much. Actually I think some of the staff were fairly rude toward the folks were just weird, poor, a little mentally ill, etc. and just wanted some help or a place to sit and read or use a computer.
The problem is that if someone is mentally ill enough they are, almost by definition, a problem patron. They act out, make noise, scare people, get belligerent and so forth. Same thing with drunks and heroin addicts. Ever see a junkie with good manners, one who doesn’t fall asleep on the floor with his pants down? Me either.
The problems some of these patrons have, by virtue of the groups they are in, are so severe and constant they can’t act right most of the time. Drugs and unmedicated schizophrenia will do that.
I’m not sure who “bad news folks” are, but they also fall under the protections of the Constitution.
Bad folks are the ones who want to break a few of your patrons ribs for their wallet or masturbate at one of the computers. Their constitutional rights have nothing to do with their conduct in the library, nor does it give them license to scare off other patrons.
I will never filter my internet and I will never take down or get rid of a “bad” book. Nor will I ever allow some poor sod to act the fool and scare or hurt people.
That person will be using the “outside the front door pavement branch” for their services.
Behavior, again
Chuck says, “The problem is that if someone is mentally ill enough they are, almost by definition, a problem patron.”
This is a completely uninformed and outdated view of mental illness. Again, it is the behavior that matters, not whether it is caused by mental illness, drugs, or fratboy pack-following. Not all people with mental illnesses exhibit problem behaviors. Not all so-called “mentally healthy” people exhibit acceptable behavior.
The tone of your posts suggest that you still don’t get it: Address the behaviors. Period.
I think you misunderstand
I understand the reality of severe mental illess far better than you know. Far better than it is appropriate to share here.
It is my belief and experience that someone sick enough is going to cause problems in regular society. Especially a library where many of the deinstitutionalized spend their days.
There aren’t a lot of frat boys in Hartford, save the ones who came in to score drugs.
And yes the behavior matters. If it was diagnosis then I would have been thrown out of my own library years ago. But you have to know the situation you are in. Poor, urban areas have a higher than average concentration of addicts and the severely mentally ill. These people are more apt to act in anti-social manner because of their illness.
Of course not all mentally ill people act out. But you know something about the problems you are likely to have and how to deal with them.
No one wants to treat these people as a diagnosis or strip them of the their rights or dignity. But addicts, drunks and the mentally ill can have behavioral problems that librarians have to deal with. Perhaps more often or more severely than the rest of the population.
There is a difference between stereotyping someone and having a realistic view of them.
So what is your point?
So what is your point?