It Comes With the Territory: Handling Problem Situations in Libraries

By Anne M. Turner

Book Overview

The mission of libraries is to meet the information needs of the people they serve--but daily, sticky situations arise that make this tough to do. Reports of peepers, use of the library by the homeless for sleeping, encounters with offensive personal hygiene, skateboarding in the stacks, the threat of violence, one's role as a babysitter for latchkey children, censorious complaints: Is there an upswing or are we just more sensitized? How do libraries meet these demands?From the perspective of a working director, this is a commonsense guide to setting fair and appropriate behavior rules and training staff in how to implement them evenhandedly and with reasonably good humor. Policies for exhibit and meeting room use; issues surrounding street people, the mentally ill, and substance abusers, sexual deviancy and parental child abuse in the library; community censorship; general security; and unaccompanied children, including protecting them and seeing to their emergency medical needs, are among the topics. Emphasis is placed on staff training and writing effective manuals.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0899508448
• ISBN13: 9780899508443
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: McFarland Publishing
• Length: 197 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 0.8" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

Solve Your Library's Problems

Turner, director of the Santa Cruz City County Library System, provides a "commonsense guide to setting fair and appropriate behavior rules and training staff in how to implement them evenhandedly and with reasonably good humor." She deals with such issues as street people sleeping in the library, the mentally ill, substance abusers, sexual deviancy and harassment, general security, unaccompanied children, and more. (summary by South Texas Library System) No library is free of these kinds of problems and there's no use trying to solve it single-handed. Get your hands on this book and the librarian no longer feels so alone which can be overwhelming at times. I wish I'd had this book when I first started my career as a library director.