Comments on: An Open Letter to Visiting Professionals

By: LibraryJo

LibraryJo — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 22:08:00 +0000

We don’t have a food policy…our only policy is if you bring in CHIPS expect to share them with the staff! I can’t remember the last time we had a customer “accident” with food and drink!
When books go home they get up close and personal with food, drink, water, children, pets and probably lots of SCARY stuff. Don’t think about it too much!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 16:42:00 +0000

Does anyone have a link to an image of the sign? It SO belongs here: http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/

By: Bill Drew

Bill Drew — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 01:30:00 +0000

I will say I agree with the intent of your post but do you allow visiting professionals to use your phones? Do you allow the meetings to continue after the library closes? Do you do free xeroxing for them if they need copies made? I think the food issue obscures your real point. you need to separate it from the food issue.

By: jislsnhd

jislsnhd — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 07:04:00 +0000

It is the Entropiauniverse ped which make me very happy these days, my brother says Entropia Universe Gold is his favorite games gold he likes

, he usually buy some Entropia Universe Money to start his game and most of the time he will win the Buy Entropia Universe Gold back and give me some cheap Entropiauniverse ped to play the game.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 20:26:00 +0000

I think what is generally missing from these discussions of rules is that when we talk about loosening the rules that comes with an expectation that patrons will act reasonably. In many communities this is not a problem. In many places patrons are astonished that it's really not cool to plop your butt on top of a table and break out your value meal or KFC picnic.

If you say something to that group, but not the gentleman sipping his covered coffee quietly you are "discriminatin" and everyone loses.

By: cwood

cwood — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 16:16:00 +0000

The Library Journal article touches on many examples of timidity in the library profession. It is interesting to note how individual library food and drink policies rose to the top of the discussion thread.

Why were we satisfied with audiobook incompatibility? Why don’t we collectively demand innovative catalog interface improvements? – just curious.

By: Cynthia

Cynthia — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 13:28:00 +0000

I do not feel attacked. I am glad the post has hit a nerve (even if not the one I originally intended).

I find the choice of keeping an old policy that has merits or changing to a new way of working very symbolic of libraries in the 21st century. As a new librarian, I think it is hard to understand how deeply some of these things run.

As I try to determine what it means for me to be a librarian, it often bangs against these types of issues. The culture in which I work is radically different from my previous career. The transition is difficult--I want to make a mark, but I don't want to put-off people either. I want to make change, but not just for the sake of change. It is a fine line.

This discussion makes me realize that the creation of policy is not ever really a completed project. It would be nice to better understand the why of many policy items--what was the original intent, etc. Without a history, much of my input is based on incomplete knowledge.

I appreciate the opportunity to speak and more important to listen.

By: Janie L. Hermann

Janie L. Hermann — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 01:14:00 +0000

Cynthia and I work at the same library, as I think many may know. I have been here 10 years and we have flip flopped on the food/drink policy more times than I care to count.

We have had many iterations of our food policy (from anything goes to nothing goes and everything in between) and *much* heated debate on staff about this issue. I am firmly in the camp of allowing drinks in the library as long as they have a lid. I am not even truly opposed to food as long as it is not smelly and won't leave a huge mess.

To address mellen22, we are not an old-fashioned library at all. In fact, we are quite progressive in many ways. The food/drink thing is one of our sticking points for some reason.

For the record, we do allow food and drink in our conference room and we also allow it our very large community room that is directly off our library cafe. So we do allow food in the library, but (at this point) only in certain zones.

I for one am going to suggest we revisit this issue yet again at a staff meeting as I truly hate enforcing this rule since I don't agree with it.

By: mellen22

mellen22 — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 23:13:00 +0000

I’m confused. You have a large public library that hosts professional conferences? and you don’t allow coffee in the community room or the meeting rooms? I actually find that hard to believe. But perhaps I’m brainwashed by the local public library system. All branches allow some types of food and drink. The main branch is combined with the local state university library and also allows food on all floors. Fascinating. It must be interesting for visiting professionals to see how an old-fashioned library operates.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 22:36:00 +0000

Some people need caffeine to productively work with information. After all, we let them take the books home amongst cigarette smoke, animal dander, and food/drinks galore – why are we such control freaks about the library setting? We’re not a sacred space anymore. We have to get over ourselves.