My mom (a LIS student and librarian) emailed this to me. I’d like to know how big the library is, and if they have an estimated number of trouble makers out of the quoted 50 students that show up each day. If the library isn’t equipped to manage that many junior high students, and safety becomes an issue, I can see shutting down as an option. Creating a rec center looks like the best option. I hope things get figured out quickly.<\/p>\n
Lock the Library! Rowdy Students Are Taking Over<\/strong>
\nBy TINA KELLEY
\nJanuary 2, 2007<\/p>\nMAPLEWOOD, N.J., Jan. 1 \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Every afternoon at Maplewood Middle School\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s final bell, dozens of students pour across Baker Street to the public library. Some study quietly.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
An institution that, like many nationwide, strives to attract young people, even offering beading and cartooning classes, will soon be shutting them out, along with the rest of the public, at one of the busiest parts of its day.<\/p>\n
Library employees will still be on the job, working at tasks like paperwork, filing, and answering calls and online questions.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153They almost knocked me down, and they run in and out,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Lila Silverman, a Maplewood resident who takes her grandchildren to the library\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s room but called the front of the library \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a disaster area\u00e2\u20ac\u009d after school. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I do try to avoid those hours.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
This comfortable Essex County suburb of 23,000 residents, still proud of its 2002 mention in Money magazine on a list of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Best Places to Live,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is no seedy outpost of urban violence. But its library officials, like many across the country, have grown frustrated by middle schoolers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 mix of pent-up energy, hormones and nascent independence.<\/p>\n
Increasingly, librarians are asking: What part of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Shh!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t you understand?<\/p>\n
About a year ago, the Wickliffe, Ohio, library banned children under 14 during after-school hours unless they were accompanied by adults. An Illinois library adopted a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153three strikes, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re out\u00e2\u20ac\u009d rule, suspending library privileges for repeat offenders. And many libraries are adding security guards specifically for the after-school hours.<\/p>\n
In Euclid, Ohio, the library pumps classical music into its lobby, bathrooms and front entry to calm patrons, including those from the nearby high school.<\/p>\n
A backlash against such measures has also begun: A middle school in Jefferson Parish, La., that requires a daily permission slip for students to use the local public library after school was threatened with a lawsuit last month by the American Civil Liberties Union.<\/p>\n
Librarians and other experts say the growing conflicts are the result of an increase in the number of latchkey children, a decrease in civility among young people and a dearth of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153third places\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201d neither home nor school \u00e2\u20ac\u201d where kids can be kids.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t consider the world as safe a place as it used to be, and we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t encourage children to run around, hang around and be free,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Judy Nelson, president of the Young Adult Library Services Association, part of the American Library Association. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153So you have parents telling their kids that the library is a good place to go.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Rowland Bennett, who served as the director of the Maplewood Memorial Library for 30 years and is now president of the local school board, said libraries had become \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the child care center by necessity.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Linda W. Braun, a librarian and professor who has written four books about teenagers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 use of libraries, said the students want only to be treated like everybody else.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153If there are little kids making noise, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cute, and they can run around, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s O.K.,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Ms. Braun said of standard library operating procedure. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Or if seniors with hearing difficulties are talking loudly, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s accepted. But a teen who might talk loudly for a minute or two gets in trouble.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
She added: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The parents don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want them, the library doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want them, so they act out.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
That leaves librarians doing a job they did not sign up for: baby-sitting for kids old enough to baby-sit.<\/p>\n
The Maplewood library has created a gallery space for young people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s artwork, put on an anime film festival and formed a Teen Advisory Group that attracted 30 youngsters for a recent pizza party.<\/p>\n
But problems persisted.<\/p>\n
In consultation with a lawyer, the library board came up with behavior guidelines in May 2005 that prohibited activities like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hairdressing or grooming of another person\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153refusal to leave the building.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The policy includes some politely precise language common to those who speak softly from behind a reference desk: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If a patron seems to be placing a staff member in the position of providing a nonlibrary-related function, the staff member may bring the interaction to a prompt conclusion.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
But library officials felt that a bigger stick was needed. Last week, the board posted a notice on its Web site and library doors saying it had \u00e2\u20ac\u0153struggled with this problem for over 10 years\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and voted \u00e2\u20ac\u0153with great reluctance\u00e2\u20ac\u009d on Dec. 20 to close after school.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Having as many as 50 young people with nothing to do creates an untenable situation,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d read the note, which pointed out that many students did not use library resources but simply socialized in the building. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It interferes with patrons of all ages who want to use the library and with the staff members who are there to serve them. The library can no longer deal with large numbers of students who come after school and wait, sometimes into the late evening, to be picked up.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
The decision has not been popular in town. In a posting on Maplewoodonline.com, the community\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Internet bulletin board, one resident, Joan Crystal, said an alternative needed to be developed before closing the library. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I also think it improper to close the library during hours when adults, older students and M.M.S. students find it most convenient to use the library,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she wrote.<\/p>\n
David Huemer, who represents the Maplewood Township Committee on the library board, said he would like to see the current police station, which is being retired in favor of a new one, converted to a youth center.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153What we have to do now is build some long-overdue facilities and fund some programs so kids can have alternatives to hanging out,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153To the extent that the vote of the library board is going to wake people up and get them to do something about kids from sixth grade to high school, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a good thing.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
About eight years ago, the library in nearby Irvington, N.J., struggling with similar problems, was shuttered for an hour each afternoon. But it was only for three days, until the students managed to settle down, officials said.<\/p>\n
Veronica Morton, who was returning a Magic School Bus book to the Maplewood library the other day with her 8-year-old daughter, Alexandra, said she had become a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153shush mommy\u00e2\u20ac\u009d after watching librarians struggle to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153get kids to calm down.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Outside the library, students who use it gave the new hours two thumbs down, way down.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Kids will get into real mischievous activities\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with the library closed, warned one teenager, Jonathan Brock, a student at the district\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s alternative high school program.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m kind of annoyed,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said David Carliner, a middle schooler who was rushing up the library steps ahead of his father. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It closes right when my school gets out, so I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t check out any books.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Happy Blitt contributed research. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My mom (a LIS student and librarian) emailed this to me. I’d like to know how big the library is, and if they have an estimated number of trouble makers out of the quoted 50 students that show up each day. If the library isn’t equipped to manage that many junior high students, and safety […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-librarical"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outsidecat.com\/wordvehicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outsidecat.com\/wordvehicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outsidecat.com\/wordvehicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outsidecat.com\/wordvehicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outsidecat.com\/wordvehicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outsidecat.com\/wordvehicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outsidecat.com\/wordvehicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outsidecat.com\/wordvehicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outsidecat.com\/wordvehicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}