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Courant.com
Hartford Public Library: A Study In Bad Behavior
By TINA A. BROWN And STEVEN GOODE
Courant Staff Writers
May 18, 2008
A $42 million makeover has transformed Hartford Public Library into a
gleaming expanse of glass and well-lit, open space that warmly welcomes
visitors.
Measured by a dramatic increase in library visits, the invitation has been
widely accepted. The changes inside the library's three floors went beyond
adding space, reconfiguring the layout and increasing the number of books,
DVDs and computers. It's become a busier place, noisier and more vibrant,
something in which chief Librarian Louise Blalock — named National
Librarian of the Year in 2001 — takes pride.
But it's also a place where the behavioral norms traditionally associated
with libraries are often breached, according to interviews with staff
members and internal library re****ts obtained by The Courant.
The re****ts do***ent drinking and drug use, with staff members re****ting
that empty liquor bottles and drug paraphernalia are often left in the
restrooms. ***ual activity has been re****ted on several occasions. The
problems reached the point where the restrooms on the library's second and
third floors have been locked, according to library staff.
Acts of violence inside the library, while infrequent, do occur: In
January, a patron complained of being robbed at gunpoint inside a
first-floor restroom; internal re****ts say a subsequent investigation by
security staff was unable to determine what happened.
The library also has a theft problem. Without a security system in place,
CDs and DVDs disappear with regularity.
Blalock says such incidents happen from time to time and she is reluctant
to institute a more restrictive environment because the library is — and
needs to be — a place that welcomes all, a view shared by several past and
present members of the library board.
Stephen B. Goddard, a longtime board member and past board president, said
the incident re****ts are "nothing new" and are minute compared to the
half-million-plus visitors who use the library each year.
"In 24 years, from time to time there have been a handful of incidents,"
Goddard said. "I have chalked that up to what any public institution in a
hyperactive environment is going to face in cities today."
"To Louise, things like the rights of patrons are paramount," Goddard
said, adding that the board feels fortunate to have had Blalock at the
helm for the past 14 years.
Blalock, who spearheaded the library's transformation, said she decided
not to set rules of behavior or install security cameras or theft
detection devices and instead emphasizes a free and open environment. She
said she has directed her staff not to call the police if they can safely
escort a patron out of the building.
As a draft statement of principle for the library puts it: "All customers
have a right to use the library according to their life and learning style
as long as it does not interfere with the right of others to use the
library."
But some employees say Blalock has taken that philosophy too far and has
failed to deal with the realities of running a library in an urban setting
— something library officials in cities across the country are confronting
as they grapple with homelessness, drug use, gang activity and other ills.
In the name of openness, they complain, patrons are forced to endure the
misbehavior of others. The result, they say, is a chaotic workplace. Some
staffers say conditions have gotten so bad they decided to go public with
their complaints that the administration has failed to provide adequate
security.
The inadequate level of security "has pushed us to a point that people
feel that they have to go public with it," said David Ionno, vice
president of AFSCME Local 1716, the union that represents library workers.
"There's going to be an incident where a librarian is going to get hurt."
Drinking, ***
The breaking point, for some, came with back-to-back incidents earlier
this year. The first was an altercation outside the library that continued
inside, then back outside to Arch Street, where a young man was stabbed.
That was followed the next day by an incident in which an 11-year-old girl
was picked up by three young men inside the library, taken to a city motel
and raped.
Those incidents may have gone beyond the norm, but those who work at the
library say it is the norm that is troubling. Staff incident re****ts
reviewed by The Courant do***ent 60 incidents — most occurring since
January 2007 — of alleged acts of criminal or disturbing conduct. Library
officials such as Blalock and Goddard say the number of incidents pales
beside the visitation at the main branch, which is expected to reach
415,000 this fiscal year, ending June 30.
Drinking and drug use are particularly worrisome to library staff members,
who say they are often forced to deal with intoxicated and belligerent
patrons — a job for which they say they're not trained or qualified.
Internal re****ts filed by staff members this year include several
episodes, including one in which a patron was caught drinking in the
bathroom and harassing a visitor.
For more than a year, library maintenance worker Leo Laffitte collected
empty liquor bottles from the restrooms and took them to the third floor
so managers could see that patrons were drinking alcoholic beverages
inside the building. His efforts were met, he said, with shrugged
shoulders and no attempts to stop it.
Finally, in April, Laffitte said he pulled empty 40-ounce beer bottles and
liquor bottles from a trash bag and put them on public display while
visitors were attending a manager's retirement party. He said he thought
that if the administrators were embarrassed by the display, they might
start addressing the issue. He never got a response.
At least eight acts of lewd or ***ual behavior in the library have been
do***ented by library staff since February 2007; only once, according to
records released by the library, was an individual banned from the
building for a substantial length of time.
Staffers said they've interrupted individuals masturbating and couples
engaging in ***ual acts in "the old fiction" section, in the media room
and in the restrooms.
One worker overheard a young couple on the third floor last October
talking about how they "needed to get a room," according to a re****t.
Rather than go to a motel, the couple went into a third-floor bathroom.
When they were caught there, they moved to a second-floor bathroom where
they were found inside a women's stall, an incident re****t said.
Staff members also are concerned about who is using the Internet at the
library. Ionno said that on occasion, staffers have re****ted seeing
patrons viewing inappropriate material. The staffers have then checked the
state's *** offender registry and found the person's photograph posted, he
said.
After one incident in May 2007, the staff called police after seeing a man
viewing child ****ography on a library computer. The man told the officers
"he just got of jail on Monday and was aware of the crime of watching
child ****," according to the library re****t. The re****t does not indicate
whether the man was arrested.
Later that month, a patron was caught viewing ****ography in a public area
when children were present. The security staff booted the man out of the
library for three weeks, the incident re****t said. In October 2006, in an
incident that generated widespread attention, Scott Murtagh, a homeless,
convicted *** offender, was caught in the midst of a lewd act while
viewing child ****ography at the library.
Security Measures
What it all adds up to, library staffers say, is an atmosphere that is
more chaotic than it needs to be were more stringent rules and security
measures in place.
The library has one full-time security supervisor who is based at the main
library and oversees a staff of 18 part-time security guards who are spread
out among the main library and its nine branches. Library managers say
there should be four guards on duty at the main branch during a regular
****ft; the security supervisor was instructed in late February to notify
management when there are fewer guards available.
The library also has invested in Vocera, a voice-activated mobile
communications system that staff members use by speaking into microphones
they wear around their necks. "If they need backup, they can ask staff to
assist them," Blalock said
Library staffers say they are concerned about dealing with situations
they're not equipped to handle. One of the episodes that brought the issue
to a head took place on Feb. 9, when a group of youths tried to attack a
younger male inside the library. A staff member's incident re****t stated
that three youths, aged 14 or 15, ran through the library yelling and
swearing after the attempted assault.
"They continued to swear as I escorted them out the door," a female
employee re****ted. "They were ranting against the 'witch' [me] as my
husband was walking in. ... While I was dealing with this, there was
another customer, a woman who was loudly complaining to our security guard
that she witnessed two men viewing ****ography on the machines next to her.
She herself was causing a disturbance," the incident re****t said.
The employee, who has 15 years of experience, pleaded for help in figuring
out how to handle such volatile incidents. "I feel that I am placing myself
in an insecure and hostile environment. The training that would be best is
if I could shadow a female manager. That way I would learn how to best
handle aggressive, threatening behavior from people who are twice my size
and thirty-plus years younger and stronger," the employee wrote in the
incident re****t.
Another security deficiency, staffers say, is a lack of scanners that
would alert staff when someone tries to leave with unchecked books, videos
or music. Such devices are staples at most public libraries, but not at the
Hartford main branch.
"In the old building if you went through the towers and if something
hadn't been scanned, it would beep," Ionno said, adding that the smaller
branches in Hartford continue to use them.
A $75,000 scanner system was ordered as part of the main library's
renovation. When it arrived, Blalock had it installed, but then had it
removed and sent back, partly because the system didn't fit with the
library's new style and partly because it was ineffective, she said.
"There is nothing that is fail-safe," Blalock said. "At some point, we'll
have something that works. ... We are investigating having cameras. There
is no one thing that we can guarantee. ... The larger issue is things are
taken out and not returned."
In West Hartford, where the main branch of the library recently reopened
after a $9 million makeover, the usefulness and aesthetics of the
monitoring system were not in dispute. There, to augment two existing sets
of gates at exits, a third set, costing about $7,000, was installed.
"It goes off often enough that people know it works," said Glenn Grube,
the library's director of technical services. "It deters the impulse."
In Hartford, the theft of media materials amounts to about 5 percent of
the collection annually, Blalock said, but the library loses far more
material from patrons who fail to return checked-out items.
"There is some theft," Blalock said. "We're trying to control it to the
best of our ability. In the current climate it's the cost of doing
business."
Blalock's Library
On the first floor of the New Haven Free Public Library, signs that say
"Quiet" and "No Cellular Phones" are posted on almost every table.
In the Silas Bronson Library in downtown Waterbury, signs warn patrons of
video surveillance cameras. Patrons are offered the choice of reading
books and magazines or using the Internet, but one thing is clear from the
signs taped to every workstation: eating, drinking and talking on the
telephone are prohibited.
Such postings are what Blalock calls an old-fa****oned strategy to create
an artificial, controlled environment.
"The library isn't quiet anymore," Blalock said, pointing proudly to her
library's participation in The Big Read, a reading promotion program
funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. Librarians read aloud to
homeless men and women twice a week on the main floor, and participants
are offered candy bars and juice to attract them.
Asked what happens when her customers misbehave or violate library rules,
Blalock said she advises her staff to walk a customer — they don't call
them patrons — outside.
"Do we always call the police? No," Blalock said.
Blalock said, though, that she calls the police when she needs to. "We
believe on one occasion we had people in here which belonged to gangs and
were using MySpace to encourage other young people to join," she said.
Blalock called the police.
She also said that security has been instructed to monitor the restrooms
and that the second-floor bathroom was locked because of a ventilation
problem. Unless patrons are caught in the act of using alcohol or drugs,
there is nothing that the staff can do, she said.
"It's hearsay," she said.
"Ninety-nine point nine percent of customers who use the public library
make appropriate use of library services and collections," she said in
e-mail. "The Library is open to all and everyone is treated with respect
and courtesy. Library customers have the freedom to use the library, but
they do not have the freedom to interfere with others rights or to behave
in an unacceptable manner. That is our policy and my philosophy.
"As staff we care for one another and take responsibility. When there is
inappropriate customer behavior, staff must intervene.
"I know there are some employees who are fearful; the library has always
had some who do not feel safe in an urban environment.
"But most of us thrive and want the challenge because we believe the work
is im****tant and we can make a difference.
"The Library is a great success story for the city of Hartford and it is
recognized in the state and nationally for a comprehensive and inclusive
program of service."
Tensions Elsewhere
The tension underlying the debate between Blalock and the staff — between
openness vs. security — is something urban libraries across the nation are
facing. The American Library Association held workshops during its annual
meeting this spring in Minneapolis to discuss issues associated with crime
and the homeless.
"The library is a wonderful place, and we think of it as a gateway to
ideas. But when you walk in the door, human nature isn't suddenly
changed," said Chip Ward, a former library deputy director in Salt Lake
City, whose essay on what is happening in urban libraries, "What They
Didn't Teach Us in Library School," is being made into a movie.
"When you face new situations, you have to do more problem-solving," he
said. "I had a drug problem and I brought in an undercover cop. ... The
best thing to do is to have good communications about what staff is
experiencing and how the administration is handling it."
The library hired a security force and developed programs geared toward
providing services to the homeless and teenagers who threatened the safety
of patrons, Ward said. Librarians elsewhere have confronted similar
problems and have used police and professional security.
"We have police officers in the branches all the time," said Maggie
Killackey, spokeswoman for the Chicago Public Library.
Aside from issues of library philosophy, any additional security at the
main branch would cost money. That is at a time when the city council is
considering cutting the budget for Hartford Public Library by $500,000.
The library has spent $8.4 million this year, exceeding its original
adopted budget of $7.9 million. The city wants to see the budget restored
to $7.9 million next year.
If the cut is adopted by the city council, board President Geraldine P.
Sullivan said 23 of 120 staff positions will be eliminated in July. She
said it would be Blalock's decision whether any of the security positions
would be cut.
Sullivan said she wasn't aware of the full scope of the staff's concerns
until The Courant started asking questions in March. She said, however,
that the board has pushed since October for the library to create its own
procedures and guidelines for handling behavioral problems. Those
procedures and guidelines are still being finalized.
"It's a very delicate balance providing a welcoming environment, so
everyone uses the library, and enforcing problematic behavior. ... People
have different standards about what offends them. That's why there should
be some guidelines," Sullivan said. "Two months ago, I might not have said
that until I heard about staff concerns."
Ionno said the union would like to see the security staff professionalized
and given the power to detain customers who break the law. He said the
staff also wants young people to be kept away from the adult computer area
so they aren't exposed to explicit content being viewed by some customers
and they want ****ography filters to be installed on computers in the
children's area.
And lastly, Ionno said, the staff expects the administration to back them
up when incidents do occur.
"Stop moving us to another branch when something happens," he said,
referring to incidents when staff members have been transferred after
re****ting problems with customers. "It doesn't solve the problem and it
makes us feel like we did something wrong."
Sullivan said Blalock has left an indelible mark on the library and
continues to have the board's sup****t. "Louise has improved the library by
light years," Sullivan said.Sullivan said when she grew up in Hartford in
the 1950s, she used the Camp Field branch, where librarians strictly
enforced the rules.
"Maybe today's library isn't Mrs. Small saying 'be quiet, be quiet.' I
don't want this story to make anyone feel threatened by using this public
space."
Contact Tina A. Brown at tabrown@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
© 2008, The Hartford Courant
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