“Black Belt Librarian” Says Respond, Not React

mdoneil says:

Bull
“You need to take a good look at yourself first”. What a load of crap. People need to know the rules, and they need to know the rules are enforced. If you have a fine, then you have a fine and until you pay it nothing else can be checked out.

I do however agree about keep something between you and your patron- a desk a table, anything. It protects you. I’ve been assaulted enough (although never at a library) to know that the harder you make it for people to hurt you the less likely you are to get hurnt. I get hurt a few times a year because I get into OPS (a term coined by the worlds most wonderful woman meaning other peoples’ stuff). However I know before I get involved that I am a complete nutjob.

My advice is to have the cops come and do a security analysis. When I worked at the local PL we had the Sheriff’s Office come and give us a review of our procedures. They suggested many good things, but also some things that we could never do – like requesting ID from people as they come in. That works at the Sheriff’s office building but not at the library.

There are any number of things you can do to increase your work safety. The first is to remember that anyone can hurt you. Keep your distance until you are very sure of anyone else (not just patrons, but volunteers, and other staff members). Always keep something between you and the patrons both for a physical and a psychological barrier.

Develop policies that require that no large packages be brought into the library. Lockers outside are a solution; there are other solutions that don’t screw the homeless over.

Never ever be afraid to call the cops. Never be afraid to call the cops. NEVER be afraid to call the cops. It is even better if you can strike up a friendship with the local cops so their presence is not infrequent in the library.

Cops are always looking for a safe and clean place to go to the bathroom. You would not believe what a pain in the neck it is to use the bathroom when you are working as a cop. You have a regular belt, a duty belt- with gun and cuffs, and radio holder and taser and asp and magazines and any other crap you decide to carry – which you have to take off (all the time for women, some times for men) and you can’t just hang that on the stall door at Home Depot. Sometimes you just want to adjust things under your outer garments – your vest, your t-shirt – just things. It is much nicer to do this in a nice clean library staff bathroom than any public place. Make your staff bathroom easily available to the cops any you will be a very popular place. If you have coffee available to staff/volunteers/cops it is even better. Cops can actually be your friends, I know about 20% of my close friends are – and not just people that were cops with me. (It also does not hurt when you are doing 43 in a 30 on the way to the library in the morning.)

So even though I used “Bull” as the subject I do think this article had some good ideas. However I think that involving your local police department in your operation both formally and informally – heck provide a phone for their use in a non-public area or allow them to upload reports using your LAN and their wireless access.

Call the cops when you have a sleeping patron, call the cops when you have a belligerent patron, and call the cops to let them know how you can have a symbiotic relationship.

Most Importantly This is also the time to hammer out the issues you will face, and from the press we know that eventually all libraries will face them, regarding patron privacy, your state laws, police inquiries, and subpoenas. If you establish these in advance and establish with what everyone is comfortable then there will never be any problems as we have heard reported.