One of the less-than-glamorous parts of my job includes enforcing library rules. As someone who dislikes conflict (that’s putting it mildly) and was raised to “go along to get along,” this can be a bit of a struggle. Okay, who am I kidding? It’s the worst part of my job. Even worse than unclogging the potty in the men’s room. That’s a story for another time.
But as a representative of the Library, it’s my responsibility to make the building safe for patrons and staff, and foster an equally welcoming environment for all comers. And if that means I occasionally need to put on the “authority figure” persona, then so be it. I can always go collapse in the office afterward.
Most folks genuinely don’t realize they’re doing something that goes against our policies. Sitting on the table instead of a chair? Not respecting the six-foot conversation rule? Settling in for a nice, cozy nap? Bringing a skunk into the library? Setting up a curling iron and doing your hair in the Nonfiction section?
(Yes, all of those have actually happened.)
Most of these are minor topics that a quick chat resolves about 95% of the time. They’re happy, I’m happy, and we get on with our lives. And we were all happy that the skunk didn’t become unhappy!
I try to be as low key as I can when I have to put on my big girl panties and speak to someone. If I’m reasonable, they tend to be reasonable. Or at least polite. I also try to give them options.
We had a group of teens from the local high school bring their lunches over to eat at the library. Pizza and chocolate milk (teenage stomachs are weird). They were perfectly polite, got a table in the back, and proceeded to chow down. Except…we have a no-food policy. After a brief check that they weren’t going to share their pizza with me, I told them it was cool that they wanted to hang out with us, and for future reference we had a no-food policy. I said I’d do another walk through in five minutes and expected not to see any food. When I swung back in seven minutes there wasn’t a crumb or a drop of milk in sight.
Sometimes, though, I need to just suck it up and be a hardass. Verbally abusing my coworkers? Defacing library property? Smacking around our computers or self-check stations? Harassing other patrons? Good-bye, get out, don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya. Times like this make me very grateful that we have a lovely relationship with our local police, and their station is about two minutes away.
I’m never entirely sure if such people woke up in a bad mood, are dealing with a lot and we just happened to get the spillover, are permanently irritable, or came into the library specifically to shake things up. It doesn’t matter the reason. Sometimes basic human decency goes right out the window.
We temporarily banned a patron for verbal abuse to staff and other patrons. When his probation period was up, we asked the police to be on hand as witnesses when we reinstated his privileges and reviewed our behavior policies. Apparently this so infuriated the man that he started talking back to the police, took a swing at an officer, and ended up leaving in handcuffs. We were advised to make the ban permanent after that episode.
Since the mask law went into play we’ve had our share of complaints, as I’m sure every other public facility has. “It’s hard to breathe.” “My child doesn’t want to wear a mask.” “You’re all a bunch of sheeple. Wake up--it’s a hoax!!”
Informing the complainers that this is not some arbitrary whim on the part of our Library Board of Trustees usually has no effect. When the conversation reaches this point, we tell them they can put on a mask and stay…or remain maskless and leave. Usually they leave, and they make sure everyone in the library hears them leaving. This is often accompanied by repeated comments that we are being “ridiculous,” “fascists,” and--my personal favorite-- “I’m never coming back to this library again!”
My point is, I don’t expect everyone to magically know all the rules right off the bat. I’m happy to gently explain, instruct, and inform visitors. I’ll work with you, if you’ll work with me. When you deliberately flaunt them, or get uppity with me, well, then I’ll turn that right back on you. With all the crap going on right now in the world, why add to it?
Although…pizza never hurts.
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