From the BBC…a thirty-six year old male patron (unnamed) who’s been thrown out of a few libraries has returned to his favorite haunt in Bridgend (in South Wales), and his old habits…this time, using an internet chatroom to write about having sex with librarians.
Library supervisors chastised librarian Ceri Randall for refusing to serve him upon his return, even going so far as offering a written apology. An internal investigation is ongoing.
Previous behavior?
I can’t tell from the article if whether the librarian refused to serve the returning user because he was engaged in the same previous behavior or if she refused to help him to begin with. Personally, I think that patrons who engage in such behavior should be banned from the library for a least a year and not allowed to return until they can present some evidence of behavior change (perhaps counseling?). The type of obscenity that the patron engaged in is in no way appropriate utilization of publicly funded facilities.
Chatrooms?
Unless there is a policy against no chatrooms I don’t see a problem with chatting about most any legal topic. Unless he is reading out loud what he writes and reads is no ones business.
As far as banning him, I am assuming the dude is way creepy and not pleasant to have around. With unpleasant/inappropriate behaviour and his past history those were the main reasons to kick him out.
Re:Chatrooms?
But it also says he was looking at pornographic sites so that’s enough to kick him out anyway.
As they did do.
I see the story being more about the way the Librarian wasn’t supported by her bosses and in fact being disciplined.
And then being told off for refusing to serve him.
Being off for 6 months due to stress? This is all about trying to get her own way in a future tribunal.
Not to say it’s not justified but thats what it’s about.
Re:Chatrooms?
If she is legitimate in her leave for stress it’s got to be due to a multitude of things or partially due to another medical/mental condition. Stressed out for six months over one porn dude seems very odd.
He’s an animal lover too
Re:Chatrooms?
Stressed out over one porn dude is maybe a bit much, but there may be more to this then the story tells here. I was at one job straight out of L-school where I was the only staff member under 50. One particular patron would put porn on his computer then shout at me “miss, miss, there is something wrong with this computer”. If one of the other staff came to help him with it, he would turn the computer off. He specifically wanted *me* to see what he was looking at and hopefully get a reaction. I don’t know about the law in Britain, but here my employers are required to protect employees from sexual harrassment. If this guy was discussing sex with librarians (or one librarian in particular) in a chatroom, I think that qualifies as sexual harrassment on the job, which is totally inappropriate.
Geez
If he is looking a porn kick him out, if you keep doing that eventually he will stop coming in.
If he is typing sex fantasies about librarians quit reading over his shoulder. Do they read the guys email too?
Someone needs to get a grip. I just got the BBC America channel on cable and I see more boobs on that in half an hour during lunchtime than I did working all day in the ER. If one guy creeps you out that much perhaps you need to work in a non patron contact area.
Re:Chatrooms?
That is definitely creepy.