Monday, February 05, 2007
Rules and regulations? Ask why.
I think it's important to evaluate your library policies on a regular basis in order to make sure they are still doing what you want them to do. Are your rules and regulations in place to make your staff's lives easier, or because one person abused their privileges ten years ago and now everyone has to suffer, or because they truly help library patrons? For example:
No! You cannot return videos in the bookdrop.
Why is that? AV materials are in pretty sturdy cases these days. Are they really so fragile that they must be handled with kid gloves? About a year ago, after talking to other libraries who did allow AV materials to be returned in the book drop and reported no problems, my boss and I decided to go for it and allow people to return AV stuff in the drop. We haven't had any items broken, and we made a lot of people in the community happy.
No! You cannot play games or do instant messaging on the computer!
Why not? We are not in the business of telling people that they must only read books that are good for them, or can only watch educational documentaries. Why would we care what they do with the time that they are allotted on the computers? In our library, everyone is allowed 1/2 hour on the computer, regardless of age. Some kids like to play games on the computers; some adults like to search for Russian brides. At our library, we aren't in the business of passing judgment on what people do at the computers (unless it involves child pornography or computer hacking, that is). ¶ posted by Mary Martin @ 6:52 PM
No! You cannot return videos in the bookdrop.
Why is that? AV materials are in pretty sturdy cases these days. Are they really so fragile that they must be handled with kid gloves? About a year ago, after talking to other libraries who did allow AV materials to be returned in the book drop and reported no problems, my boss and I decided to go for it and allow people to return AV stuff in the drop. We haven't had any items broken, and we made a lot of people in the community happy.
No! You cannot play games or do instant messaging on the computer!
Why not? We are not in the business of telling people that they must only read books that are good for them, or can only watch educational documentaries. Why would we care what they do with the time that they are allotted on the computers? In our library, everyone is allowed 1/2 hour on the computer, regardless of age. Some kids like to play games on the computers; some adults like to search for Russian brides. At our library, we aren't in the business of passing judgment on what people do at the computers (unless it involves child pornography or computer hacking, that is). ¶ posted by Mary Martin @ 6:52 PM
