The Dallas (TX) News Reports cleanliness will be next to lawfulness at the library next year. A revised code of conduct being adopted at the Dallas Public Library and the city’s recreation centers prohibits visitors from “emitting odors (including bodily odors or perfumes), which interfere with use of services by other users or the work staff.”
The code also prohibits sleeping, bathing, eating and drinking at the facilities.
Library officials say the rules – similar to those implemented across the nation – are meant to create a reader-friendly atmosphere.
Others believe the no-shower, no-service policy targets a specific group: the poor and homeless who congregate in the city’s center.
On the one hand..
On the one hand, I agree that it is very important that libraris not discriminate against the homeless.
On the other hand, I have been in a library where there was someone that reeked so badly that I literally could not be in the same room with him without feeling ill– if I had stayed ten minutes, would have lost my lunch to the porcilin god, it was that bad. (The strongest BO I have ever had the misfortune of smelling, combined with a very strong smell of urine, combined with other smells I didn’t hang around long enough to try to identify.)
So, a rule against malodorousness does have it’s place. If someone smells so bad that they are really and truely making it nearly impossible for others to use the portion of the library they are in, I think library staff should be able to do something about it.
The danger is of the rule being mis-used to kick out someone deemed “undesirable” using the excuse that they happen to smell a little bit.
If handled as fairly as it appears to be written..
It could be a good thing. What I mean: When someone walks in reeking of perfume/cologne, will they also be asked to leave? The ordinance appears to call for that, but practice is the real issue.
We’ve had occasions where my wife had to leave the dinner table on a cruise or in a restaurant because someone at the next table was so heavily doused with Eau de Asthma. (She has fairly typical asthma, at least “fairly typical” in today’s world.) As far as I know, she’s never had to leave the library because of stinky patrons–except for perfume/cologne wearers.
So the proof is in the performance: If a middle-class man or woman is perfectly free to use the library while sending perfume-sensitive patrons gagging from 10 feet away, while a homeless person is ousted because they’re a little stinky from 5 feet away…well, that’s discrimination, pure and simple.
Stinky patrons
The perfume bathers are just as bad as the no bathers, so I too think if applied to the both groups it will be fine.
I never tell a no bather that he smells unless I provide a list of places he can take a shower. We do have some shelters that will allow people to do some laundry and have a nice warm shower. If you’re not familiar with the area and stink I find patrons are really pleased with the information about the local services. No one really wants to smell bad.
…and on the other hand
There are some patrons so far gone that they don’t even notice how badly they smell, don’t care, and become argumentative when staff approaches them with the address of a shelter where they can clean up. In the 20 years I’ve worked in PL’s, patrons have become more confrontational and the work has become more dangerous, especially in poorer urban areas where the flotsam and jetsam of society comes to rest. It’s always been a balancing act but it seems to have gotten worse. I support a code of conduct that acknowledges that a urine soaked, excrement smeared individual may not be the best study buddy.
Re:…and on the other hand
I guess it is because I spent so long as an RN in a big city ER but I find the mentally ill fairly easy to deal with. Then again I am remarkably familiar with the involuntary committment law (the Baker Act) in Florida and people who are so far out in left field that they can’t take care of themselves can be involuntarily hospitalized for a short period. If you come in covered in feces, reeking of urine and are that far gone I can usually make a few phone calls and have you placed somewhere appropriate where they can get you the help you need.
Some people don’t want treatment, but when you become a danger to yourself society has a duty to bring you back to a somewhat even keel, if only for a few days until you can decide for yourself to live in a dumpster eating leftover McNuggets. Sometimes it is a cycle, but it gets them out of the reference department and hopefilly into a better life for themselves.