Libraries Are For Grown-Ups
March 12, 2008 by Katherine Coble
I was just watching Metro Channel 3 (because that’s what my life has come to…) and got sooo peeved at the re-airing of a week-old hearing I had to rush down two flights of stairs and unburden my mind.
The mayor’s budget hearings are going on to determine how much everyone is going to give up. The Library is giving up Sunday hours at some locations, curtailing bookmobile service and doing some other things they talked about before I tuned in.
The rather perturbed woman who was being asked to give up her financing did a good job of accounting for the reductions and explaining why the Library made the {Sophie’s} choices they had to, and then she began talking about “strategic conversations with the community” about the best direction for the Library’s future.
That’s when it happened.
Dude on the front panel–is it the mayor? one of the mayoral aides? I’m not sure–said “what about strategic conversations with schools and parks? something something After School Programs are needed.”
Ahem. Ahem. Ahem.
People of Nashville-indeed, people of Everywhere–let me explain something. Libraries are many things but at their most basic level, they are collections of information coupled with innovative forms of information retrieval.
Yes, I realise that “the Library” is a public building and is usually staffed with women who remind you of your kindly aunt, your grandmother or your neighbour who babysits for $50/week. That doesn’t mean that the Library is a place for you to drop off your kids. It’s not Free Range Public Babysitting–which is what most people think of when they hear “after school programs”.
I do think children have a vital place in libraries, and that libraries have a vital place in children’s lives. But to me–and to most librarians as well–that means that children should be taught at a young age how to use libraries and maximise their resource potential. Every five year old should know how to find and check out a book, how to treat that book and how to bring it back. Every eight year old should know how to request a book via the internet and every ten year old should know how to use the internet to research a paper for school. (That includes knowing how to document Web sources in footnotes.)
But libraries are not there for bored kids to skateboard down the handicapped ramps for 3:30 to 5:45 every afternoon, for parentless games of tag in the lobby or for sitting on the lone bench in the breezeway to try to do homework while watching for your mother’s car.
[...] Katherine Coble caught a reairing of the Metro Budget hearings on Channel 3 and has worked herself all up over a reference to after-school programs at public libraries: I do think children have a vital place in libraries, and that libraries have a vital place in children’s lives. But to me–and to most librarians as well–that means that children should be taught at a young age how to use libraries and maximise their resource potential. Every five year old should know how to find and check out a book, how to treat that book and how to bring it back. Every eight year old should know how to request a book via the internet and every ten year old should know how to use the internet to research a paper for school. (That includes knowing how to document Web sources in footnotes.) [...]
Amen! My mother was a librarian when I was growing up, an in our town, the library was part of a cluster of buildings that also included all of our small town’s schools.
At some point, parents started to think it was a great idea to stop paying for child care when their kids hit middle school (or send them home on the bus with a door key) and instead told them to just walk to the library after school and wait there (for several hours) to be picked up on the parents’ way home from work. The thing is, these kids were probably all the kind who couldn’t be trusted to go home on the bus with a door key, if you know what I mean. At a certain point, they had to start locking the bathroom door, and would only give the key to adults, because some kid had climbed up on a sink and jumped until it came off the wall entirely, not to mention multiple instances of entire rolls of TP being stuffed down toilets. Eventually, they had to make a rule that children weren’t allowed in the library at all without an adult. The librarians hated to do that, but the behavior problems were way beyond anything they could handle. With no legal right to impose any sort of punishment, the only option was to keep the kids from walking in the door in the first place. I don’t think there was a person on that staff who didn’t hate that they’d made things difficult for good kids, but it was the only line they could draw for which the enforcement was actually practical.
Of course, those kids just hung out on the sidewalk, acting crazy there instead and stuffing crap down the book drop. And as the librarian’s kid who did her homework in the work room where the bookdrop emptied (it was directly in the wall, not a separate box), I can assure you that sometimes the crap was actual CRAP. Those kids were a mess far beyond anything a librarian could effectively handle without help from the parents and community at large.
We just revisited our policy on unaccompanied children recently. Some of the things that came up, aside from the fact that none of us are trained childcare providers, were that we have no way of knowing, if the child leaves with an adult they didn’t come in with, if that is really an authorized person or some creep. We don’t know if the kid is even supposed to be there, if anybody in charge knows s/he’s there. We don’t know the child in case of a medical emergency. It’s not just behavior - it’s liability and simply not being able to watch an unattended child one-on-one.
I agree with Rachel. It’s not at all fair to make libraries take care of kids after school.
This may sound loony, and I’m sure it’s been proposed somewhere, but why not have an extra study period after school where parents could opt their children in for that would be study time only? It would require minimal increase in teacher hours and it may lead to an increase in grades. Plus, there would be a better chance for parity in schedules between parents’ work and children’s schooling.
The trick would be that discipline problem children would be forced out of the program, requiring parents to take time off work or find some other avenue of after-school care at their own expense.
Libraries are supposed to be QUIET, children by their nature are not quiet. They are naturally noisy and sticky, and should not be left unattended anywhere much less a library. Everywhere does not have to resemble Chucky Cheese ya know.
Not all children are going to misuse the library. I grew up across the street from the town library. I spent many hours in the library. I joined the summer reading programs. I went to the free movies. I went alone sometimes. (I must of been 8 or 10 when I started going by myself). In high school I studied in the study room. The librarian was very clear about the rules and made it clear that if the kids did not behave they were kicked out. I took her authority very seriously. And now I love reading. I read to my children until they fall asleep. I just use any excuse to read to my children. I read whenever I can.
By the way I was a very active child but I knew how to follow rules. I have ADHD. I was too afraid to misbehave. If I wanted to be loud I would play basketball or other sports. It was a different time back than.
Today children are allowed to express themselves no matter what. Some child care experts have told parents that we must never say no to our children. I think as parents we have gone too far on the side of letting children get away from too much.
As a society and as parents we need to teach children that there is a time and place for everything. I do have a special needs child and I watch him like a hawk. But I give a little more freedom to my children who are able to comprehend, understand and follow rules. I loosen up when they show they can handle certain circumstances.
Parents need to be aware of what the child can and can not handle and know at what level they need to supervise their children. My one child I will not take anywhere without my being able to observe what he is doing except school, I put trust in the teachers there and speak regularly with them. My other child is able to behave in the right situation. Parents need to know (honestly not with rosy glasses) what their children can and can not handle.
A library is a fine place for a child to visit. It is a very educational place and can benefit the child for life.
I admit that before the new library was built I did not like bringing them to the small library because the kids could not stick to the kids section. Now that we have a large library a separate kids section we go often.