Joanne Jacobs links to a story about a couple of library workers (not technically librarians) who were fired for mishandling a book they found offensive. (Apparently the book, a graphic novel instended for adults, includes explicit sexual images.) One of the employees checked out the book to keep it off the shelf. She kept renewing it, over and over - till someone requested the book, and the computer wouldn't allow the renewal. The library worker checked on the requestor, and found it was a child, so she canceled the request. At some point, her plan was discovered, and she and a complicit employee were fired.
These two library workers' actions were wrong, but I understand their motivation.
When I was a kid, I had free access to the library. I got there on my bicycle, and had my own card, and could check out (or read in the stacks) whatever I wanted. Of course this was a long time ago now, before DVDs or even videos, and when graphic novels were mostly called comic books (Archie and Veronica, anyone?). But still, I can remember wandering in the "adult" section and reading books I shouldn't have been reading.
Now, my kids have their own library cards. They can check out any book, as far as I can tell. But they can't check out movies except those in the children's area. That means they can't acccess the MacGyver DVD they are watching right now, National Geographic nature documentaries, and R-rated fiction movies. That's a little inconvenient for me, mainly because once in a while we'd like to get more than the 4 DVDs we can take out at once. But, we manage to get by.
It would be nice if each book or movie could be assessed on its own content and coded in such a way that a child can't take it out if the content is too adult-oriented. But that's just impractical. I suppose there are parents who wouldn't want their 10-year-olds watching MacGyver. And it wouldn't stop anyone from reading something they shouldn't while in the library.
Most of the comments on the news article were very critical of the library workers. Many pointed out that it's the job of the parents to monitor their child's reading material. Yes, that's right. But I don't think people can depend on that. I look over the books my kids check out, but I doubt everyone does. And if my kids were, say, going to the library on their own after school, I might never know what books they had.
I'd like to think my kids wouldn't hide inappropriate books from me, but I know it's a possibility. Actually, I wish that there were no inappropriate books in the public library, but I guess not everyone would agree with my decisions on what could stay and what would have to go. (Yet, they should. I'm so reasonable.)
Words, and images even more so, stay with us. You can't unsee something. Kids do need to be protected from their own curiosity sometimes.
I don't have an answer to this problem, except to be vigilant with my own kids as long as I can.
Showing posts with label library. Show all posts
Showing posts with label library. Show all posts
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Mad moms at the library
The last two times I've visited our local library - yesterday and today - I saw some really bad behavior on the part of a couple of moms. My daughter saw both events; my son saw one.
Yesterday: A mom is sitting at a computer. Her kid is bothering her. She takes him into the kids' area but it still annoyed with him and doesn't really do anything to help him. Like, help him get some books to look at. She finally, and loudly, removes him from the library amid threats of punishment and various deprivations.
Coincidentally, a man walks up to the circulation desk with a stack of cds, no library card and no ID on him. The librarians decline to check out his cds. He walks out.
As we leave, we see the mom just outside the library door, still yelling at the kid and smoking a cigarette. The cardless man goes over to her. She angrily dumps her purse out on the sidewalk and looks for something, throwing each item back in as she looks. (My daughter tries but can't exactly tear her eyes away.) The man goes back into the library, but comes out again, empty-handed, as we drive off.
Today: A mom is sitting at a computer in the young adult area. Her preschooler is on the couch next to her, with nothing to do. He comes over to me as I look for a book, and asks me a question I can't understand. His mom tells him sharply to go sit back down. He asks for a book. She tells me "you already had your chance to get a book." The kid is about 3. You had your chance?
A few minutes later while we are waiting to check out, we hear loud wailing. The woman is mad now and taking the kid out the door. When we get to our car my kids tell me that she was holding the boy by the torso, halfway upside-down and telling him to stop moving his legs before he kicked someone. They were upset, shocked by this. They agreed that I had never been that mean to them (though they allowed that I can yell pretty well), and certainly never at the library.
Now we have had our bad moments in the library. But I've never seen anything like this. The library is supposed to be a safe place; a quiet place. Fun, but not loud fun. When my kids got out of control, we quietly left. Once we left behind a big stack of books and Thomas the Tank Engine videos. We walked outside and sat on a bench. The boy was crying. As we sat there calming down, a grandma-type came over to me. She'd seen the whole exchange: the misbehavior, my request for compliance, the refusal, the setting down of materials, the quick exit. She didn't say much to me. I just remember this part: "You are a good mom. You did the right thing." Of course I would remember that part. That kind of encouragement doesn't come every day.
When my kids were little I longed for time on my own in the library. I never got it. Occasionally I might have had a minute for browsing if I loaded the kids up with picture books and sat them in an aisle next to me. But it was short. Mostly I requested books online and picked them up. I got a lot of duds that way, but it didn't matter; I just took them back on the next trip. We have rarely gone a week without a library stop, so it's always been easy enough to get new books. (Whether I had time to actually read them once home is another story.)
A mom of young kids has no business expecting to get anything done at the library except spend time with her child(ren), enjoying books together and (if possible) separately.
The time of out-of-control kids at the library is very short. So very short! I have reached the time that I can leave my kids and go to my own areas without a thought about their behavior. They wander around the whole place now: my girl to the adult crafts section but the kids' fiction; the boy to the oversized books, the young adult area, and, just recently, to the adult area for books on aviation and war. They come to me when they're ready to check out. I do still keep track of their cards - they live in the library bag.
Of course I don't know why these women were at the library. I couldn't see what they were doing on the computers. Maybe they were looking for jobs, or a home. Who knows what kind of pressures they are under? But still. You don't make the library a battleground.
Contrast this with the dad of a very noisy toddler. This child did not like the library and let everyone know it. His dad patiently took the boy outside. When we left, we saw him calmly walking around with his little screamer in the parking lot. I met his eye and smiled, trying to convey "been there, done that." I guess it worked because he smiled and rolled his eyes. He gets it.
It's not that hard to get, really. The library can be a magical place for a child. Love of books can be grown there. Don't wreck it for them.
Yesterday: A mom is sitting at a computer. Her kid is bothering her. She takes him into the kids' area but it still annoyed with him and doesn't really do anything to help him. Like, help him get some books to look at. She finally, and loudly, removes him from the library amid threats of punishment and various deprivations.
Coincidentally, a man walks up to the circulation desk with a stack of cds, no library card and no ID on him. The librarians decline to check out his cds. He walks out.
As we leave, we see the mom just outside the library door, still yelling at the kid and smoking a cigarette. The cardless man goes over to her. She angrily dumps her purse out on the sidewalk and looks for something, throwing each item back in as she looks. (My daughter tries but can't exactly tear her eyes away.) The man goes back into the library, but comes out again, empty-handed, as we drive off.
Today: A mom is sitting at a computer in the young adult area. Her preschooler is on the couch next to her, with nothing to do. He comes over to me as I look for a book, and asks me a question I can't understand. His mom tells him sharply to go sit back down. He asks for a book. She tells me "you already had your chance to get a book." The kid is about 3. You had your chance?
A few minutes later while we are waiting to check out, we hear loud wailing. The woman is mad now and taking the kid out the door. When we get to our car my kids tell me that she was holding the boy by the torso, halfway upside-down and telling him to stop moving his legs before he kicked someone. They were upset, shocked by this. They agreed that I had never been that mean to them (though they allowed that I can yell pretty well), and certainly never at the library.
Now we have had our bad moments in the library. But I've never seen anything like this. The library is supposed to be a safe place; a quiet place. Fun, but not loud fun. When my kids got out of control, we quietly left. Once we left behind a big stack of books and Thomas the Tank Engine videos. We walked outside and sat on a bench. The boy was crying. As we sat there calming down, a grandma-type came over to me. She'd seen the whole exchange: the misbehavior, my request for compliance, the refusal, the setting down of materials, the quick exit. She didn't say much to me. I just remember this part: "You are a good mom. You did the right thing." Of course I would remember that part. That kind of encouragement doesn't come every day.
When my kids were little I longed for time on my own in the library. I never got it. Occasionally I might have had a minute for browsing if I loaded the kids up with picture books and sat them in an aisle next to me. But it was short. Mostly I requested books online and picked them up. I got a lot of duds that way, but it didn't matter; I just took them back on the next trip. We have rarely gone a week without a library stop, so it's always been easy enough to get new books. (Whether I had time to actually read them once home is another story.)
A mom of young kids has no business expecting to get anything done at the library except spend time with her child(ren), enjoying books together and (if possible) separately.
The time of out-of-control kids at the library is very short. So very short! I have reached the time that I can leave my kids and go to my own areas without a thought about their behavior. They wander around the whole place now: my girl to the adult crafts section but the kids' fiction; the boy to the oversized books, the young adult area, and, just recently, to the adult area for books on aviation and war. They come to me when they're ready to check out. I do still keep track of their cards - they live in the library bag.
Of course I don't know why these women were at the library. I couldn't see what they were doing on the computers. Maybe they were looking for jobs, or a home. Who knows what kind of pressures they are under? But still. You don't make the library a battleground.
Contrast this with the dad of a very noisy toddler. This child did not like the library and let everyone know it. His dad patiently took the boy outside. When we left, we saw him calmly walking around with his little screamer in the parking lot. I met his eye and smiled, trying to convey "been there, done that." I guess it worked because he smiled and rolled his eyes. He gets it.
It's not that hard to get, really. The library can be a magical place for a child. Love of books can be grown there. Don't wreck it for them.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Get off the computer and go to the library.
For some reason today I am thinking about public libraries and how so many people have no idea what they are missing out on by not going there.
Why, there are books of all sorts, both in book form and on CD (and even cassette, for crying out loud!) and some on pre-loaded ipod-like devices. There are music CDs and movies. Magazines. Old newspapers. Reference materials so you can look stuff up.
Yes, there is a lot of stuff available on the internet (and you can use the internet at the library) but how can anyone not like strolling along the aisles, browsing those stacks of books/racks of CDs/cases of DVDs? And it's all free; you can load up a huge bag of stuff to haul home (we do every time) and not feel guilty at all. You also don't have to feel guilty if you end up not reading the book, watching the movie, listening... you get the idea. Unless, of course, you get those unused items back late and have to pay a fine. (In our spending tracking system, we have a category called "stupid" for those fines, among other things.)
Go on now, support your local library.
Why, there are books of all sorts, both in book form and on CD (and even cassette, for crying out loud!) and some on pre-loaded ipod-like devices. There are music CDs and movies. Magazines. Old newspapers. Reference materials so you can look stuff up.
Yes, there is a lot of stuff available on the internet (and you can use the internet at the library) but how can anyone not like strolling along the aisles, browsing those stacks of books/racks of CDs/cases of DVDs? And it's all free; you can load up a huge bag of stuff to haul home (we do every time) and not feel guilty at all. You also don't have to feel guilty if you end up not reading the book, watching the movie, listening... you get the idea. Unless, of course, you get those unused items back late and have to pay a fine. (In our spending tracking system, we have a category called "stupid" for those fines, among other things.)
Go on now, support your local library.
Monday, June 30, 2008
The differences between us
Every now and then I am reminded of how different we are from other people. I had one of those experiences at the library the other day.
In front of me in line at the circulation desk was a nodding acquaintance of mine and her high-school age kids. They were looking for a book for one of the kids - assigned summer reading for (public) school. The child didn't know the name of the book needed - the librarian had to go look it up on the list the high school had provided them. (So I guess this one was not the first student to walk into the library looking for they-don't-know-what.) When it was determined that all copies of the book were checked out of that branch, the mother said they would check back for it another time. Of course the librarian suggested they put in a request for it so they could just come in and pick it up and not stop back at some random time when the book may or may not be on the shelf. The family looked at one another with puzzlement. The librarian went on to explain that it was available at several other branches and she could get it for them. The family still had no clue what she was talking about. She mentioned the names of some of the branches in the county-wide system that had the book on the shelf. The mother said "Oh, I can't drive all the way out there..." The librarian very calmly (much more calmly than I felt at the moment) explained the method for requesting books to be transferred from branch to branch. The family all looked stunned that such a thing is possible.
I didn't hear the end of it because the other desk opened up and I was able to pick up my requested books and get out of there. But I was stunned too. These kids attend the public high school that is across the street from the library. How can they not know how to use it? I see kids in there during after-school hours all the time - mostly using the computers, but searching the stacks too. Walking in and out with books. Real books in their hands. How can this entire family have no clue how to use the library? At least one of them had a card so presumably it was not their first experience there. That's one good thing, at least.
OK, I am sure I felt at least a twinge of superiority over this. My kids know how to use the library. They understand they can get a book from any branch in this library system. They don't know about inter-library loan yet as I have never had reason to use it. But I don't guess it would mystify them. I think if they went to school they would know, or I would teach them, not to walk in for a book without knowing the name of it and relying on the librarian to have a copy of the school's list.
So once again I am reminded that we are not like other people. I thought the public library was a near-universal experience for middle-class Americans. Wrong again!
In front of me in line at the circulation desk was a nodding acquaintance of mine and her high-school age kids. They were looking for a book for one of the kids - assigned summer reading for (public) school. The child didn't know the name of the book needed - the librarian had to go look it up on the list the high school had provided them. (So I guess this one was not the first student to walk into the library looking for they-don't-know-what.) When it was determined that all copies of the book were checked out of that branch, the mother said they would check back for it another time. Of course the librarian suggested they put in a request for it so they could just come in and pick it up and not stop back at some random time when the book may or may not be on the shelf. The family looked at one another with puzzlement. The librarian went on to explain that it was available at several other branches and she could get it for them. The family still had no clue what she was talking about. She mentioned the names of some of the branches in the county-wide system that had the book on the shelf. The mother said "Oh, I can't drive all the way out there..." The librarian very calmly (much more calmly than I felt at the moment) explained the method for requesting books to be transferred from branch to branch. The family all looked stunned that such a thing is possible.
I didn't hear the end of it because the other desk opened up and I was able to pick up my requested books and get out of there. But I was stunned too. These kids attend the public high school that is across the street from the library. How can they not know how to use it? I see kids in there during after-school hours all the time - mostly using the computers, but searching the stacks too. Walking in and out with books. Real books in their hands. How can this entire family have no clue how to use the library? At least one of them had a card so presumably it was not their first experience there. That's one good thing, at least.
OK, I am sure I felt at least a twinge of superiority over this. My kids know how to use the library. They understand they can get a book from any branch in this library system. They don't know about inter-library loan yet as I have never had reason to use it. But I don't guess it would mystify them. I think if they went to school they would know, or I would teach them, not to walk in for a book without knowing the name of it and relying on the librarian to have a copy of the school's list.
So once again I am reminded that we are not like other people. I thought the public library was a near-universal experience for middle-class Americans. Wrong again!
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