What’s Wrong with Recreation

http://lblog.jalcorn.net/archives/954-Whats-Wrong-With-Recreation.html

Another from the archives. Louise at Librarian’s Rant comments on the blocking of MySpace on public computers at Manatee Library:

I guess my ultimate question is what is this policy intended to solve? If it’s a question of equitable time limits on public computers, there are other solutions. Is it that they don’t want anyone to enjoy themselves while on the computers? That’s a great way to get people to hate your library system. This seems ridiculously self-defeating, and ultimately difficult to enforce.

What a great question to ask when a new policy or policy change is coming up: what problem/event/action/behavior are you trying to solve by blocking MySpace. I’m reminded of the large urban library tour I had a couple of years ago where the teen computers were designated one person only – and of course, no teens were there. they were probably clustered around someone’s laptop at Starbucks! Think folks before you create one more policy.