Lock the Library!

January 2nd, 2007

Take a look at this piece from the NYT:

“Every afternoon at Maplewood Middle School’s final bell, dozens of students pour across Baker Street to the public library. Some study quietly.”

Others, library officials say, fight, urinate on the bathroom floor, scrawl graffiti on the walls, talk back to librarians or refuse to leave when asked. One recently threatened to burn down the branch library. Librarians call the police, sometimes twice a day.

As a result, starting on Jan. 16, the Maplewood Memorial Library will be closing its two buildings on weekdays from 2:45 to 5 p.m., until further notice.”

I don’t work in a public library, nor do I live in this area, and I haven’t seen the teens behavior first hand. I’m sure that the library weighed their options before making this very important decision. I also think that there are many sides to this story, so I’m not going to judge the administrators. However you look at it, however, closing the library during peak hours. benefits nobody.

Here’s one thing I do know.

“[O]ffering beading and cartooning classes” is not the best way to attract teens to the library. I see many happy, non-aggressive teens on Flickr playing DDR, etc. Again, I don’t know much about these libraries either. For every content teen dancing his heart out could be one who causes problems for everyone in the library

Update - The very helpful David Rothman sent in a link to the Maplewood library board statement regarding the closures.

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