I am always surprised and thrilled by the help and support of fellow professionals in library science. During these difficult times in the industry, it is a nice reminder of why staying is not a bad choice.

1) Have a good relationship with your local police. Leave the handling of any potentially dangerous patrons to them. Do not use them as babysitters for run-of-the-mill behavior problems that can be solved through consistent enforcement of policy, including temporary bans.

Thanks for collecting this info-I’m excited to see what shakes out! It would definitely make for a good round table discussion!
2) Abstain from judgment. A patron that may appear to be drunk may be sick (indeed, we’ve had this in our library) and a patron who may appear to be on drugs could be mentally ill. Judge situations in terms of library policy and staff/patron safety, not on your personal feelings about perceived lifestyle choices.

i frankly think that hiring a social worker — or a psych nurse — is a brilliant idea, and that it mightn’t be a bad idea for libraries to just *find* money for that purpose.

it wouldn’t be bad, either, if the u.s. would provide better mental health services to its people, so that the responsibility doesn’t get shoved off onto librarians, teachers, bus drivers, and law enforcement.

I think most staff aren’t trained on how to handle a person, not just mentally ill, but in general. They don’t know the techniques to neutralize a problem or how to handle a person so they leave peacefully. It’s very tricky, but certainly a tool any library staff member needs to know how to do. I’m working on getting that kind of training for the staff at my library.

A few hints, I hope they’re helpful:

Enforce the rules, and enforce them equally. If you tell the smelly homeless guy that he has to wear shoes in the library, you’d better enforce the same rule for the teenagers who kick their shoes off while they read. You get problems when people feel they’re being singled out. It’s not who, it’s what.

Have someone in the building during all open hours that is willing to confront people when they’re breaking the rules. It’s preferable if that person is either very confident or large. I’m 6′ 2″ tall. I wouldn’t hurt a flea, but people don’t know that. Be firm when you tell people to stop breaking rules. Not “I’d prefer if you weren’t using your cell phone in the library.” Much better is “no cell phones in the library.” It’s a rule and there is no room for negotiation.

Establish an eviction procedure. Our procedure goes in three stages: inform, warn, evict. Once a patron has broken rules repeatedly, evict them, notify all library staff of the eviction, and call the police if the patron returns. Serious offenses can result in immediate eviction. It helps if you have a good community police department that responds quickly and takes your issues seriously. Don’t be hesitant to call them.

Write incident reports about all major rule violations. Distribute them to all staff. Catalog them in a database. Maintain a list, with photos if available, of all patrons who are evicted.

Save lifetime evictions for the truly dangerous. Others get temporary evictions. Try to get photos when you evict, though this may be hard at times.

Try to be empathetic, but don’t let people walk all over you. It IS hard to be homeless. No one asks to be schizophrenic. That doesn’t mean that those people get to break the rules. They follow the same rules as everyone else. You have to be willing to throw them out in the middle of winter when they might not have anywhere else to go.

You will almost certainly find that some homeless folks are perfectly good patrons–they might spend all day at the library, but they read quietly, are polite, and even helpful. Try not to make too many generalizations.

Network with local service providers. We have an evening service organization that provides free meals and clothes to the homeless. I’ve got their phone # programmed in my cell phone.

Best,

Steve