Reply #41: We are having problems at my university library [View All]

[marshall]

I am a librarian at a university library, and this year for the first time we are having problems with people creating scenes, refusing to be quiet when asked, etc. The procedure is to ask them to leave, then to call the police. Both times in the last month when campus police were called they have refused to do anything because I guess they don't want to be caught up in a situation like this.

Libraries have been identified by the courts as a "limited public forum". They have a specific purpose--as a place for quiet contemplation and study. I don't think they were right to have tasered this student (unless there is more to the story than we now know) but I do think other patrons who come to the library to use it for its intended purpose should not be forced to suffer because somebody wants to make it the scene of a public protest.

I'm not sure what the solution is, but without even being able to identify who the student is what can be done about it? Maybe if students swiped their ID cards through a machine as they entered the building there would at least be a record of who is in the library and if somebody creates a disturbance and refuses to cooperate there is at least some means of tracking them down beyond tasering them.