However, the teens, at least at my particular branch of employment, have become the biggest thorns in our side. Despite offering special teen spaces, unique teen programs, and various other opportunities the problems that we started with have remained. In the case of our particular branch the problem had to do with particular teen patrons. These ‘problem’ patrons are often the source of either mischief or, in some cases, harm to others. While there are adult ‘problem’ patrons are most vocal and most confrontational are our teen ‘problem’ patrons. I personally feel that the solution to the problems experienced at your particular library, namely the parking issue among others, are the cause of individual teens who should be removed and I do agree that eliminating it for all is a bit much. Having said that, I completely understand the Library Director’s reasoning on this matter. Furthermore, it is easy to sit outside of a library system and question the judgements from the comforts of a classroom or a home, but when you work for the public on a regular basis you soon find that there are some individuals who complain about just anything and it is extremely likely that your particular Director had some nasty phone calls from irate older patrons who were inconvenienced by teens. In an effort to appease these patrons the Director took an option to cut the snake off at the head.

At my particular branch, there are those patrons who often do complain about the slightest transgressions, be they real or imagined, and they demand immediate responses. In these cases it is difficult for us to act because our hands are tied by a management tactic that attempts to make all parties happy; this flawed way of viewing public relations has created situations where the end result is often a massive over-reaction. The library staff, often eager to find a way to calm down overzealous patrons are often forced to cut off access to certain things in an effort to appease these individuals. This policy of appeasement, much like its earlier 20th century political equivalent, is highly controversial and flawed as you have now seen. The correct solution, in my opinion, is to institute more business like procedures within a library setting and to enforce stricter patron codes of conduct in an effort to ensure that these kind of incidents never occur, thus allowing the teens to peacefully coexist with the other patrons.

This is clearly a situation of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. There is nothing inherently inappropriate with the use of social websites, no more than there is anything inherently wrong with using e-mail or speaking. This is a problem of patrons being abusive. They are the problem, not MySpace or Facebook.

The problem with taking a hard line with problem patrons is that it is the very staff who are not getting the support they need who must enforce the new hard line rules. Restricting access across the board takes the big bulls-eye off of these staff, since the decision is out of their hands.

Is it the correct decision? Probably not. Is it an understandable decision? Absolutely yes. After all, access to Facebook and MySpace is fairly inconsequential in comparison to the ability to feel comfortable and safe. It’s not just the staff who are affected by this kind of problem, and being a parent, I would not want my kids darkening the door of a library where this kind of problem was going on unchecked.

Measures such as this actually could work as a very effective first step towards a proper solution. Remove access for everyone to let everyone know how serious the situation is… then, after a period of time, reintroduce access on a provisional basis along with a code of conduct. Let patrons know that access will be removed again if the problems recur. Leverage the power of social pressure.

Beyond this, though… if this kind of thing is going on, it’s a clear sign that the library really needs some extra training and resources in handling problem teens and other problem patrons. There will always be a next big thing that they’re going to get all worked up over, and in the long term, their ability to get things banned across the board could even become some kind of power trip.

Best wishes to the staff who are in this situation. It’s not a good one. Maybe we should all be taking this conversation to your administrations to let them know that they need to get on the ball!