The Oregonian Reports Annoyed by false alarms on new security gates installed at the Multnomah County Library’s central branch, the then-chief librarian turned the power off six years ago.
Since then, about 6.5 million patrons have passed through those dormant anti-theft corridors. It is anybody’s guess how many books, CDs and DVDs also walked out of the Central Library or 16 other branches in the county system.
The county not only has no functioning security system, but it also has no reliable way to track missing or stolen materials.
Why does stuff like this happen?
Do the architects and contractors know how libraries work? Are they educated? Shame to spend capital funds on such failing systems.
Re:Why does stuff like this happen?
Do the architects and contractors know how libraries work? Are they educated? Shame to spend capital funds on such failing systems.
To put it shortly and bluntly- no.
For as much praise as the Seattle Public Library received for its allure, the staff had to put up handmade signage hung with blue masking tape to direct patrons. I don’t care how much you want to make a library beautiful, you must also make it usable. Libraries are places of wonderment and beauty, but they should also be places of utility. Their usage should be intuitive once a patron gets a feel for the place.
When was the last time you heard someone wax lyrical about the architectural beauty of a fire station, or police department? When was the last time you saw an article in Architectural Digest regarding either of those things? You don’t. Because while a fire station or police department may look good on the outside, when you go inside you find a place that’s easy to utilize.
Our security system gives us tons of problems too. It’s gotten to the point that hardly anyone looks up when it goes off because we’ve gotten so many false alarms. And besides, most security gates have a flaw, at least in the US. In most American buildings, doors swing outward from the inside of the building. This is nice for fire codes and the like, but it’s also great for thieves. They can sprint through the gate and be through the doors before anyone has time to react. I’ve watched this at work at two seperate libraries with two seperate gate systems. As long as nothing prevents the thief from sprinting through the security gates and out the doors, you system is damn near useless.
Re:Why does stuff like this happen?
“I don’t care how much you want to make a library beautiful, you must also make it usable.”
In some cases, functionality is sacrificed for one person’s view of beauty. I spent several months at a previous job lobbying for end-of-range labels that could be easily changed when the collection shifted (we had just remodeled. The previous ones were photocopy paper in three-ring binder protective sleeves…) The head of our parent organization, who only cared about how much praise and attention he got, insisted we get gold ENGRAVED signage. So everytime we shift the collection, we have to get new ones engraved. And the people who do the engraving aren’t library literate, so they always get the spacing wrong in the call numbers. A nearby public library bought fancy permanent ones, and now, several years later, they aren’t correct. The collection has shifted so much. I wanted the ones that you print out the inserts on a laser printer and just slide them in the brackets. I was overruled. In my current job (overhauling a company library) I bought for them what the previous place would not let me buy. They look great. And I can change them in 10 minutes or less. Cheaply.
Re:Why does stuff like this happen?
To this day I don’t understand why some libraries do things like that. One thing that you can count on in every library, well every library I know of, is change. Things change. What was once today will be something else tomorrow. And before money is spent on engraving and such things I think libraries, and any other institution really, ask one fundamental question:
Could this ever change?
Engraving the names of contributors and architects on the plaque or in a wall? Yeah, that’s probably okay. Custom engraving for the director’s door? Well… is that director ever going to leave or die? So why engrave their name on the door? I figure it only takes a few days at most for people to learn that the Director is Ms. or Mr. Soandso. Do they really need their name on their door? And if they insist that they do, well, all I can say is keep an eye on that one. They’re petty and vain.
I have a little engraved tag thingy sitting on my desk announcing my name as “Dany Messer.” I love it, because it’s wrong. See my first boss, besides being one of the greatest bosses I’ve ever had, was full blooded French with accent. Apparently, you spell “Danny” with one ‘n’ in French and she didn’t even think about it. Problem is, I’m German. 🙂 But, can’t change it. It’s already been made. It cost $X.xx dollars. The best thing about it is that it has a small, triagular chunk of wood stuck on the back of it with foamy tape to hold it up.
But that doesn’t make it any less wrong. But really, do I care? No, not really. Actually, I’m not even sure where it’s at right now. I thought it was on top of my CPU, but it isn’t. Must’ve fallen off, again. Besides, I’ve been here ten years and if people can’t tell this is my desk from the Penny Arcade comics, the pictures of my baby son, and the “Ranganathan has a POSSE” pin-up… then they’re too damn stupid to work in a library!
Not the only one
A library I used to work at a long time ago had a similar problem. They remodeled the building and, once done, the security gate would go off randomly all day. The vendor could find no problem with it. The circ staff was spending most of the day checking bags and re-desensitizing items. Finally they’d had enough and unplugged the darn thing. It’s been unplugged for probably 15 years now and still is unplugged (which is why I won’t name them). They figure that the occasional stolen item is worth the peace and quiet. I’m surprised, though, that Mult. Co. did the same thing. They have some nice stuff in their libraries. Ours was pretty run of the mill.