Abandon Your Baby at a North Carolina Library

Re:I have a better idea
“After all, it’s just as much their job and responsibility to look after abandoned children as it is ours.”

Well no. Public librarians are government employees, and so have added responsibility. And, while the reporter does say “any reasonably responsible adult” will do, think about it: If you wanted to keep something secret, who would you go to? A reporter? No way! Police? They have the power to lock you up, so they are out. Maybe someplace that makes a big deal about confidentiality, and has no coercive authority, and is open to the public anyway? I think the reporter was quite smart to suggest turning the baby in at the library.

Besides, judging by talk from most librarians, how would we know an abandoned child?

Yeah, lets post signs that say “All Unattended Children Will Be Assumed to be Abandoned in Accordance with the Abandoned Infant Protection Act!”

No, really, the article was encouraging people to “hand over” their newborns. This shouldn’t be a big deal. Some scared kid hands you an infant and says “I can’t handle this” and runs out, and you call the social workers and ask them what to do. And, if you are really nice, hold the baby in the meantime.

I don’t know where one should leave their child, after all, I’ve never had to face that choice beforeBut I would probably prefer someplace like a hospital, or a school.

These are fine choices, but hospitals are quite intimidating, and schools are not public the way libraries are (and besides, would you want to give your baby to your teacher? Young mothers may well be students themselves).

This kind of crap really sickens me.

Which crap?

Putting babies in dumpsters?

Or do you mean the law designed to discourage that?

Or the reporter trying to publicize the law because another baby died last week?

Or that the reporter DARED include librarians in a list of responsible adults to which you could safely give your baby, without fear of prosecution?

It’s a good law, and a good article.

Sigh. All I really wanted to post was the tie ins with the ALA’s PR:

AbandonInfants@Your Library

And mention the new curbside baby drop we are installing.

Re:I have a better idea
So’s the guy who drives the street sweeper in front of the building every so often. Is it his responsibility too?

Yes. Of course, it really is everyone’s responsibility. I don’t know, but I certainly hope that anyone who finds a baby on their doorstep and thinks ‘not my job’ while stepping over it will be charged with manslaughter, will endangerment of a minor, or SOMETHING (depending on the outcome).

I would suggest that, even though we may be “government employees” that doesn’t make it our job to take abandoned children. There are government employees assigned to matters such as this and they aren’t librarians.

Sure, and if a distraught teen mother comes into the library, a good librarian will show her how to use the library’s website to find the local Social Services office. Come on, we’re dealing here with people who are in danger of putting the baby in a dumpster!

Obviously we wouldn’t post signs like that.

Actually, I was somewhat serious about the sign. It would probably scare parents into not using the library as a free babystitting service.

The point is that there’s unattended children at the library all the time who have no idea where their parents went. Now what would a mother intent on abandoning her child tell them if they were old enough to understand language?

Unattended children are a real problem, one that is in no way worsened or lessened by this law. It is the “Abandoned Infant Protection Act.� Infant. As in less than 15 days old. If you have an unattended newborn in your library, you call the police, social services, whoever. You don’t wait to see if the mother is coming back.

The crap that librarians are seen as professional free babysitters to begin with and now we’ve got some yutz saying that abandoned children should be handed over to us because we’re somehow responsible.

As the article makes clear, you can hand the baby over to any adult. The law is more specific, requiring that the adult be “of suitable discretion who willingly accepts the infant.� The reporter used librarian, I suspect, because we are relatively un-intimidating. People know where to find us. And any library will have at least some adult who is willing to accept the responsibility of looking after a newborn for the 20 minutes it will take for social services to arrive. Especially if the other option is a dead baby in the dumpster.

I know plenty of librarians who have no interest in children, and certainly didn’t sign up and get a degree to become a child welfare specialist.

I agree. I also didn’t get a degree to call the ambulance when I find a patron unconscious and bloody in the bathroom. And yet the degree doesn’t matter. I don’t think to myself “hmph. I’m a librarian, not an EMT.� You don’t need a degree to take a baby from a panicked mother. You just do it.

And it reflects very poorly on the profession that we get upset over the use of the word librarian (just once) in an article that is trying to prevent babies from dying (!) because it doesn’t accurately reflect on the duties and job descriptions of professional librarians.