“Bad Behavior” at Hartford PL?

The central library of the Hartford Public Library (HPL), CT, according to a long May 18 article in the Hartford Courant, is “A Study in Bad Behavior.” The newspaper, drawing on the accounts of union leaders and internal documents, suggests that the library, lacking a policy on handling behavior problems, has been lax in responding to concerns about patron drinking and sexual activity, that staffers feel unsafe, and that the absence of a security system enables theft of materials.

At the heart of the dispute is a question about the posture of a library—the one institution that should be welcoming and free to all—in a city that, like many, has its share of indecorous people. Former board president Stephen B. Goddard told the newspaper that he didn't consider the “handful of incidents” alarming. However, current board president Geraldine P. Sullivan acknowledged that the newspaper's questions had made her aware of the full scope of the staff's concerns and that the board eight months ago asked for policies regarding behavior problems to be developed.

HPL won a 2002 National Award for Library Service from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and in 2001 chief librarian Louise Blalock won LJ's Librarian of the Year Award. Blalock, in a May 20 memo to staff, said she would be meeting with Police Chief Darryl Roberts—who stressed in a Courant article that day that staffers seeing bad behavior should call police. Blalock said she asked the library board to convene a special task force on safety and security.

The security situation “has pushed us to a point that people feel that they have to go public with it,” David Ionno, VP of AFSCME Local 1716, which represents library workers, told the newspaper in the initial article. Another staffer told the paper that he put empty beer and liquor bottles on display at a manager's retirement party after his previous complaints had been ignored.

The newspaper cited at least eight acts of lewd or sexual behavior in the library since February 2007, but only one person was banned “for a substantial length of time.” Library staffers said they were concerned about fights and other incidents to which they were not equipped to respond.

Nearly everyone makes “appropriate use of library services and collections,” Blalock initially told the newspaper. “[T]he library has always had some [employees] who do not feel safe in an urban environment.” Some commentators on the Courant's web site took umbrage at that statement; one, describing herself as a former HPL employee, said that staffers had regularly been harassed by those printing out pornographic pictures.

Another commenter, apparently an HPL employee, suggested that the library would experience fewer incidents if there were more support and supervision for library users from nearby shelters and halfway houses.

In the memo, Blalock cited several changes in the past six months aimed at enhancing safety, including adding security staff, new team training, and a voice-activated communications system. After meeting with employees, she announced that HPL would hold mandatory two-day training sessions to help employees deal with unruly behavior, hire a library security consultant to help develop a plan, and—in a clear shift—invite a police officer assigned to City Hall, which is adjacent, to include the library in his rounds, according to the Courant.

Union official Ionno told the newspaper that “all of us are on the same page,” noting that the staff supported changes like the revival of a safety committee and an internal blog to share ideas and concerns. He said that, though Blalock opposes posting library rules publicly, staff wanted a document they could show patrons to enforce rules.

As for a new security system, Blalock told LJ, “Theft detection is being planned for the media center but not the entire building because theft of print materials is a nonissue.”